PTI claims huge victory in Supreme Court’s verdict on reserved seats

Islamabad, July 12 (IANS) In a massive victory for former Prime Minister Imran Khan and his political party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), Supreme Court of Pakistan on Friday announced that the PTI is entitled for the proportionate allocation of reserved seats of minorities and women.

A 13-member full bench read out the judgment – a split verdict with eight in favour and 5 against – declaring the decision of Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and the Peshawar High Court (PHC) of allocating reserved seats to the ruling coalition as unconstitutional.

“The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) was a political party and remains a political party,” the Supreme Court, headed by Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa, said in its order. It stated that PTI candidates can neither be declared as independent candidates, nor representative of any party.

The court order stated that at least 39 candidates, as per their submission before the ECP, could be established as PTI candidates. It also directed the remaining 41 candidates to submit their candidacy within 15 days. The directive is also coupled with instructions to PTI to submit its list of reserved candidates within days to the Pakistan Election Commission (PEC).

The case of allocation of reserved seats had taken a pivotal turn after the Supreme Court’s decision in January earlier this year. PTI’s party symbol ‘bat’ and was taken away and the party was found at fault for not conducting its intra-party elections as the SC ruled in favour of the ECP.

The January 13 decision forced PTI candidates to contest the General Elections in February as independent candidates with different symbols allocated to each of them by the ECP.

The PTI-backed independent candidates performed beyond expectations in the polls, bagging at least 80 seats in the lower house (National Assembly). Later, the independent candidates joined another political party Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) which had not contested the elections. SIC eventually gained prominence after the joining of PTI-backed candidates.

However, when the issue of proportionate allocation of reserved seats came to light, ECP decided against giving any seats to SIC and allowed other elected political parties in the parliament to distribute the reserved seats amongst themselves under the formula of proportionality.

As per Article 51 of the Constitution of Pakistan, “there shall be 342 seats for members in the National Assembly, including reserved seats for women and non-Muslims”.

The reserved seats matter pertains to at least 60 seats for women and at least 10 seats for non-Muslims.

The Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) maintained that it should also be included in the list of political parties being allocated reserved seats in the parliament. It challenged the ECP decision but the Peshawar High Court (PHC) allowed the SIC’s share to be distributed among other political parties.

However, the Supreme Court observed in its judgment that the ECP misinterpreted its decision on intra-party elections by PTI.

The decision of ECP to deny SIC any share on reserved seats of non-Muslims and minorities, along with the judgment of PHC that ruled in favour of ECP, was also set aside and suspended by the Supreme Court.

The apex court decision on Friday has practically revived PTI as a major political party in the parliament and has also made it eligible to claim proportional share in the reserved seats.

The decision is being seen as a massive success for PTI in view of the challenges it faced before February elections.

The PTI leadership celebrated the decision with party workers chanting ‘release Imran Khan’ slogans outside the Supreme Court building.

“I congratulate the whole of Pakistan for today’s victory. This decision by the Supreme Court has ensured the rights of the people and their support for Imran Khan and PTI,” said PTI chairman Goher Khan.

On the other hand, political party Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC), which was joined by PTI-backed independent candidates after the elections, was declared ineligible to be given reserved seats.

“The SIC did not even contest the election and nor did it win even a single seat in the provincial or the National Assembly. The party’s constitution does not accept non-Muslims and barred them from joining the party. SIC also never submitted its list of reserve seat candidates before the ECP, said senior political analyst Javed Siddique.

The government took a serious note of the judgment of the Supreme Court, stating that the decision is not in line with the constitution and that it has been done to facilitate a particular party (PTI).

“PTI did not bring this case to the Supreme Court, Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) did. PTI did not even claim the reserved seats, SIC did. PTI was not even a contesting party in the case. Yet, the decision today mentioned and brought PTI back in the parliament,” said Rana Sanaullah, Prime Minister’s Special Assistant on Political Affairs.

Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar said the Supreme Court verdict poses zero challenge to the ruling government.

“PML-N led coalition government has a clear majority despite the Supreme Court of Pakistan verdict on PTI and its ally SIC’s reserved seats,” he said.

On the other hand, the victory is huge for PTI as it has brought the party back into the parliament under its own name and without any dependency on any other political party like the SIC. The decision is also significant because it gives PTI its due proportional share in the 70 reserved seats.

“This victory is also huge for the PTI… Now the Shehbaz Sharif government, which is so dependent on its coalition partners, will have a tough time ahead in every step it takes – from getting bills passed or legislations approved. Challenging times lie ahead of Shehbaz Sharif,” said Siddique.

–IANS

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