The full court bench of the Supreme Court, while upholding the petitions related to the reserved seats of the Sunni Ittehad Council, asked the PTI to give names for the reserved seats within 15 days.
The Supreme Court of Pakistan on Friday upheld the petitions of the Sunni Ittehad Council regarding the reserved seats, quashed the decisions of the Election Commission and the Peshawar High Court and said that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) is entitled to the reserved seats. .
A 13-member full court bench headed by Chief Justice Qazi Faiz Isa had reserved its decision on the petitions on July 9 after the parties had completed their replies.
On Friday, Chief Justice Qazi Faiz Isa said at the start of the proceedings that the verdict was in the ratio of eight to five, which was written by Justice Mansoor Ali Shah. At the same time, he asked Justice Mansoor Ali Shah to pronounce the verdict.
After which Justice Mansoor Ali Shah delivered the verdict and said that the Peshawar High Court's decision regarding the specific seats of the Sunni Unity Council has been annulled while the Election Commission's decision is against the constitution.
The court decision said that the Election Commission misinterpreted the decision of the Supreme Court. "The Election Commission's decision is unconstitutional."
The judgment said: PTI is and will remain a political party. An election symbol cannot prevent a political party from contesting an election. The Election Commission presented a list of 80 members of the assembly, out of which 39 members belonged to PTI.
The Supreme Court declared PTI eligible for specific seats and said that after joining PTI, specific seats should be given according to independent members. PTI should submit the list (to the Election Commission) for the specific seats within 15 days and clarify which party participated in the elections.
The Supreme Court said that this decision will apply to the National Assembly and all provincial assemblies. "Specific seats should also be given to PTI in Punjab, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, while the selected candidates of the party should not be considered as independent candidates or affiliated with any other party."
Justice Mansoor Ali Shah, Justice Shahid Waheed, Justice Athar Manullah, Justice Muneeb Akhtar, Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar, Justice Ayesha Malik, Justice Hasan Azhar Rizvi and Justice Irfan Saadat delivered the majority verdict.
Chief Justice of Pakistan Qazi Faiz Isa, Justice Jamal Mandukhel, Justice Naeem Afghan, Justice Aminuddin Khan opposed the petitions while Justice Yahya Afridi wrote a dissenting note.
Justice Yahya Afridi, in his short judgment, said: 'The appeals relating to the specific seats of the Sunni Ittehad Council are dismissed. PTI members cannot be declared independent, so reserved seats should be given to PTI instead of Sunni Ittehad Council.'
Attorney General Mansoor Usman Awan, Election Commission lawyer Sikandar Bashir and independent candidates' lawyer Salman Akram Raja were also present in the court room.
PTI demands resignation of Chief Election Commissioner and members
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf leader Umar Ayub demanded the resignation of the Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja and the members of the Election Commission after the Supreme Court's decision.
In his message on X, he further said that 'Election Commission took a biased attitude against PTI and Imran Khan.'
Earlier PTI Chairman Barrister Gohar Ali Khan had said in a conversation with the journalists outside the court after the verdict that 'Tehrek Insaaf has been restored and those who wanted to seat him have been put to shame.'
He demanded the Election Commission to immediately implement the court order.
On the other hand, enthusiastic workers of Tehreek-e-Insaf were seen shouting slogans in favor of Imran Khan in the premises of the Supreme Court after the verdict.
Muslim League-N is not threatened by the court decision: Law Minister
Prime Minister Nazir Tarar, speaking to the media after the Supreme Court's decision, said that the current government, especially the Muslim League-N, is not in any danger from the Supreme Court's decision and they have a majority of 209 members.
At the same time, he said that at present nothing can be said regarding whether the government will file an appeal for revision of the court decision or not. "The federal cabinet will decide on the request for review."
The Federal Law Minister said in his press conference that 'it feels like the constitution has been rewritten, because PTI members participated in the election with separate electoral symbols and after winning, the Election Commission or Peshawar High. Neither appeared in the court nor submitted an affidavit that we are related to PTI.
According to Azam Nazir Tarar, they all claimed that 'we have won as an independent and we belong to the Sunni Ittehad Council.'
Giving his opinion on the decision of the Supreme Court, he said that it "concludes that indeed, going beyond the principle of interpretation of the Constitution, beyond the clear words in Articles 51 and 106, a new mechanism has been suggested and has rarely been exemplified in the past.'
The issue of reserved seats in the Sunni Ittehad Council: When did it happen?
Last year, on December 22, 2023, the Election Commission of Pakistan withdrew the election symbol of the bat from the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) for not conducting the intra-party election in accordance with the party constitution, against which the PTI appealed to the Peshawar High Court. appealed, on which the Supreme Court suspended the decision of the Election Commission on December 26.
However, after the commission filed a review appeal, the second judge of the Peshawar High Court restored the Election Commission's decision, after which the PTI approached the Supreme Court, where a three-member bench headed by the Chief Justice The bench also decided not to give bat sign to the party.
In view of this decision, Barrister Gauhar Khan, the leader of PTI and the chairman of the party nominated by former Prime Minister Imran Khan, announced to participate in the general elections as an independent candidate.
On February 8, 2024, after winning a large number of seats supported by members in the general elections, the party leadership announced the joining of the Sunni Unity Council in the National Assembly, Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly on February 20 to 'get specific seats'.
The PTI had earlier announced that it would form an alliance with Jamaat-e-Islami in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Majlis-e-Wahdat Muslimeen in the Center and Punjab, but Jamaat-e-Islami refused to go with PTI.
In a statement issued by the PTI Secretariat on February 21, 86 independent members of the National Assembly have been submitted to the Election Commission, while 105 of the Punjab Assembly, 85 of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly and nine independent members of the Sindh Assembly have been submitted to the Election Commission. The membership certificates of the members were also submitted to the Sunni Ittehad Council.
After that, the certificates of more members were also submitted to the Election Commission.
Later, PTI wrote a letter to the Election Commission to 'provide quota for reserved seats for women and minorities'.
A few days later, on February 28, a five-member bench headed by Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja ruled unanimously that the political party Sunni Ittehad Council was not entitled to reserved seats. Four members of the Election Commission decided to 'give certain seats to other political parties' while one member in a dissenting note decided to 'keep the seats vacant until the amendment of Article 51 and 106 of the Constitution of Pakistan instead of distributing them to other political parties'. gave
Member Punjab Babar Hassan Bharwana also issued a dissenting note in the Election Commission's decision. In which he said that 'I agree with honorable members to the extent that these seats cannot be allotted to the Sunni Unity Council because the priority list was not submitted by the political party on time which is the basic requirement of the law. And it cannot be submitted at the post-election stage.
However, I have different views on the distribution of seats through proportional representation to other political parties. In my opinion, Articles 51(6-d) and 106(3-c) of the Constitution clearly state that the National Assembly or the National Assembly from the respective province on the basis of the total number of general seats won by each political party. Specific seats will be allocated from the provincial assembly, however these specific seats should be kept vacant until the amendment of Articles 51 and 106 of the Constitution.
After the Election Commission rejected the requests to give specific seats to the Sunni Ittehad Council, the Sunni Ittehad Council challenged the decision in the Peshawar High Court.
After the hearing of this case was completed for a few days, in March of this year, the High Court also rejected the appeal of the Sunni Ittehad Council while maintaining the decision of the commission.
The Sunni Ittihad Council filed an appeal in the Supreme Court against the decision of the High Court.
Initially, a three-member bench of the Supreme Court headed by Justice Mansoor Ali Shah was formed to hear this case, which on May 6 this year suspended the decision of the Election Commission and the Peshawar High Court to give the Sunni Etihad Council seats to other parties. and referred the matter to the Practice and Procedure Committee to constitute a full court or a larger bench on the request of the Attorney General, after which a full court was constituted on June 3, which reserved judgment on the case on July 9 after hearing. .
What is the number game in the house?
The National Assembly currently has members from 13 parties, out of which eight parties are part of the ruling coalition.
The eight ruling coalition parties have a combined total of 208 seats, short of the two-thirds majority of 224. A two-thirds majority is required for constitutional amendment.
After the decision of the Election Commission, the reserved seats were distributed among all the other parties, then the ruling coalition got a two-thirds majority, but after the Supreme Court suspended the decision, this number has returned to 208.
The total number of reserved seats in the National and Provincial Assemblies of the Sunni Alliance is 78, of which 23 belong to the National Assembly and the rest belong to the Provincial Assemblies. 26 are from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly, 27 from Punjab Assembly and two from Sindh Assembly.
Due to the absence of election symbols in the general elections held on February 8, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leaders participated in the elections as independents and later the successful candidates joined the Sunni Etihad Council.
According to the constitution, independent candidates have to join a party. Eight out of 90 members of the National Assembly remained independent while 82 joined the Sunni Unity Council.
Party position of political parties in the National Assembly
The Election Commission had issued a document regarding the party's position in the National Assembly, according to which the Muslim League-N won 75 general seats.
With four seats for minorities and 20 seats for women, PML-N has 107 National Assembly seats.
54 candidates of Pakistan People's Party won the general seat, no independent candidate joined. With the People's Party getting two seats for minorities and 12 seats for women, the number rose to 68.
Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) won 17 candidates, MQM got one minority seat and two women seats, taking its strength to 20. The total number of members of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam has increased to 10.
Jamiat has won six general seats, three reserved seats for women and one minority seat.
Three members of Pakistan Muslim League-Q won the general seats and after the inclusion of an independent candidate and a specific seat for women, the number of members became five, while three candidates of the Stability Pakistan Party won and one woman seat made the number four. went
Party position after getting reserved seats of Sunni Unity Council
There are eight parties in the ruling coalition in the National Assembly, including Muslim League-N 107, People's Party 68, MQM 20, Muslim League-Q five, Satrif Pakistan four while Muslim League Zia, Balochistan National Party, National Party, Balochistan Awami Party. The combined seats of these parties make the total number of seats 208, but after the ruling coalition got 22 reserved seats in the Sunni Ittehad Council, the number was reduced to 230.
According to the announcement of the Election Commission, the remaining 23 special seats of the National Assembly, out of which the Pakistan Muslim League-N got 16, made the number 123.
The Pakistan People's Party has 73 seats with five more reserved seats, while Muttahida Qaumi Movement and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam were given one seat each, making the total number 21 and 11 respectively.
Position of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly
Independent candidates supported by Tehreek-e-Insaf won the election in 90 seats in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Other parties won a total of 19 seats, including the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam F on seven seats, the Muslim League on six seats and the Pakistan Peoples Party on four seats.
In light of the decision of the Election Commission, the Sunni Ittehad Council (PTI) could not get reserved seats for women and minorities, so all the 26 reserved seats in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly were shared among all these other political parties.
JUIF had won seven general seats from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and according to the announcement issued by the Election Commission, they were given 10 special seats, after which the party's total number of seats has increased to 17.
Pakistan Muslim League-N won six seats in the provincial assembly elections in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and eight reserved seats were given to them, according to the Election Commission's announcement, after which the total number of Muslim League-N increased to 14. Similarly, Pakistan People's Party won four seats in the Provincial Assembly and according to the Election Commission, six specific seats were allotted to them.
Awami National Party won one seat from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf parliamentarians also got one reserved seat.
Punjab, Sindh and Balochistan Assembly
Similarly, 27 reserved seats for women and minorities in the Punjab Assembly were distributed among other parties. Sindh's two remaining reserved seats, one for women and one for minorities, were later divided. Independent PTI members did not win seats in Balochistan, so there are no reserved seats for them.
If the seats are not obtained, the two-thirds majority of the government will be lost
Any amendment to the Constitution of Pakistan requires a two-thirds majority from both houses of Parliament. No bill to amend the constitution can be passed by less than two-thirds majority of the members. If the Sunni Alliance Council gets reserved seats, it will be practically impossible for the government to amend the constitution without the support of the Sunni Alliance.
Very comprehensive
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