PTI files application in SC to become party in reserved seats case

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) on Wednesday submitted an application to the Supreme Court (SC) to become a party in the reserved seats case, Aaj News reported.

The case was originally filed by the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC), a political ally of the PTI, as an appeal against a decision by the Peshawar High Court to bar the party from retaining the reserved seats in the National Assembly (NA).

SC says reserved seats cannot be allocated in deviance from principle of proportional representation

Earlier, Attorney General Mansoor Awan submitted a written argument to the Supreme Court in the same case. Awan requested the top court dismiss the SIC appeal in the reserved seats case and uphold the Peshawar High Court’s decision to deny the party seats.

During the first hearing in the case, Chief Justice of Pakistan Qazi Faez Isa questioned why the PTI-backed independents after winning the general elections joined the SIC instead of PTI, whose certificate they had attached with their nomination papers for contesting the February 08 polls.

PTI legislators seem to have committed ‘political suicide’ by merging into SIC, observes CJP

The top court Tuesday adjourned the hearing of the case of the reserved seats until tomorrow (Thursday), stating that reserved seats cannot deviate from proportional representation.

The full bench, consisting of the Chief Justice of Pakistan Qazi Faez Isa and other justices, including Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah, Justice Munib Akhtar, Justice Yahya Afridi, and Justice Aminuddin Khan, heard the case on Tuesday when the hearing resumed.

Following the February elections, the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) became the second-largest political party in NA after it was officially recognized as a parliamentary political party by the electoral body.

Reply to SC against PHC judgment: SIC not entitled to reserved seats: ECP

This implied that 84 candidates, backed by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), who contested and won the February 8 general elections as independents, officially became SIC lawmakers.

However, the ECP did not reallocate reserved seats—which, if done— would impact the numerical strengths of the political parties in the Assemblies—depriving the ruling coalition of the strength to carry out the legislation in Parliament that requires constitutional amendment(s).

The ruling coalition has 224 seats in the NA, which gives it a two-thirds majority in the 336-seat NA. As many as 21 of the 25 SIC reserved seats were allotted to the ruling coalition in a highly controversial decision issued by ECP this March that attracted a strong public backlash. The Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) got 16 SIC reserved seats and the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) got five of those seats.

If these seats are reallocated to SIC, the ruling coalition’s strength would be reduced to 203 seats, depriving it of a two-thirds majority in NA.