Supreme Court declares PTI not eligible for reserved seats

The Supreme Court’s (SC) Constitutional Bench dismissed on Friday the petitions filed by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) in the reserved seats case, declaring that the party will not be eligible for them in the national and provincial assemblies.

The verdict was announced by a 10-member bench headed by Justice Aminuddin Khan on Friday.

In a 7-3 majority ruling, the bench set aside the Supreme Court’s earlier judgment dated July 12, 2024. Justices Aminuddin Khan, Mussarat Hilali, Naeem Akhtar Afghan, Muhammad Hashim Khan Kakar, Amir Farooq, and Aleem Hakim Najafi voted in favour of upholding the PHC’s verdict.

“All review petitions are allowed. The impugned majority judgment dated July 12, 2024, is set aside. Petitions filed by the SIC [Sunni Ittehad Council] are dismissed, and the judgment rendered by the Peshawar High Court is reinstated,” Justice Khan stated while reading out the short order.

The bench clarified that detailed reasons would follow later, with the possibility of further elucidation.

Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail, while concurring with the decision to allow the review petitions, maintained his earlier stance on the 39 reserved seats but revised his opinion concerning 41 seats, as outlined in the short order.

As a result of the ruling, the 39 reserved seats, earlier claimed by PTI-backed candidates contesting under the banner of the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC), will now be distributed among other parliamentary parties, including the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F), and others.

Reacting strongly to the verdict, PTI described the judgment as “the funeral of constitutional, judicial traditions, and justice” in a post on social media platform X.

PHC decision on reserved seats

In March 2024, the PHC rejected petitions filed by the SIC for the reserved seats of women and minorities.

Justice Shakeel Ahmed told Barrister Ali Zafar that “the law uses the word secure, you didn’t secure the seats”.

“Your case of the Sunni Ittehad Council, the PTI joined it, both of them didn’t contest the election.

The reserved seats can be secured when the political parties have won the seats,“ Justice Syed Arshad Ali said.

“You had time after the Supreme Court decision to hold the intra-party election, but you didn’t.”

In March last year, a five-member bench, headed by Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sikandar Sultan Raja had rejected the SIC’s petition seeking the allocation of reserved seats in the national and provincial assemblies.

The ECP announced the verdict with a 4-1 majority, saying the SIC was not entitled to reserved seats.

In its decision, the electoral body said the SIC is not entitled to claim quota for reserved seats due to having “non-curable legal defects and violation of a mandatory provision of submission of party list for reserved seats which is the requirement of the law”.

“The seats in the National Assembly shall not remain vacant and will be allotted by proportional representation process of political parties based on seats won by political parties,” the order said.