The Peshawar High Court rejected on Thursday petitions filed by the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) for the reserved seats of women and minorities, Aaj News reported.
The party had challenged the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) verdict of not allocating reserved women and minority seats to SIC.
A five-member larger bench headed by Justice Ishtiaq Ibrahim, and comprisisng Justice Ijaz Anwar, Justice Atiq Shah, Justice Shakeel Ahmed and Justice Syed Arshad Ali announced the decision.
On Wednesday, Attorney General for Pakistan Mansoor Usman Awan stressed that the SIC didn’t participate in the elections, adding that reserved seats are only allocated to parliamentary parties.
He further underscored that the SIC didn’t submit any list for allocation of reserved seats.
The court said that there is no procedure laid down for providing lists for reserved seats in the Election Act.
Background
On March 4, the Election Commission of Pakistan had accepted applications of the opposing parties and decided that the seats in the National Assembly and provincial assemblies would not remain vacant and would be allocated by a proportional representation process of political parties on the basis of seats won by political parties.
The development resulted in PTI-backed SIC losing a total of 77 reserved seats including 23 National Assembly seats (20 women and 3 minorities), 25 Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly seats (21 women and 4 minorities), two Sindh Assembly seats (women) and 27 Punjab Assembly seats (24 women and 3 minority).
Following the ECP’s verdict, the SIC secured a stay order from the PHC wherein the court had barred the oath-taking of lawmakers notified on reserved seats denied to the party.
However, despite the court’s order, four MNAs elected on reserved seats had taken oath in the lower house amid protest by the opposition benches who were told that neither NA Speaker Ayaz Sadiq had received the PHC’s against oathtaking of members nor the lawmakers who were sworn-in belonged to the KP.
Reserved seats: NA Speaker administers oath to four members
Last week, PHC Chief Justice Ibrahim Khan clarified that those who were sworn in in the National Assembly (NA) in light of the PHC order “did not commit contempt of court” and that the court’s stay order was limited to KP.
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