The Supreme Court upheld the decision of the Sunni Ittehad Council regarding specific seats and annulled the decision of the Election Commission and the Peshawar High Court.
A 13-member Larges Bench headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Qazi Faiz Isa had reserved the verdict in the case related to the specific seats of the Sunni Unity Council.
The larger bench included Justice Qazi Faiz Isa, Justice Muneeb Akhtar, Justice Mansoor Ali Shah, Justice Athar Manullah, Justice Ayesha Malik, Justice Shahid Waheed, Justice Azhar Hasan Rizvi.
Apart from this, Justice Yahya Afridi, Justice Jamal Mandukhel, Justice Mohammad Ali Mazhar, Justice Irfan Saadat, Justice Naeem Afghan and Justice Aminuddin were also part of the bench.
Two sessions of the full court were also held before the verdict on the specific seats of the Sunni Unity Council was delivered.
The Chief Justice of Pakistan said that the decision on the request of the Sunni Unity Council is a majority decision of 8 which was written by Justice Mansoor Ali Shah.
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf was and is a political party: Supreme Court
In the Supreme Court’s room number one, the decision was pronounced in the presence of election commission lawyer Sikandar Bashir, Attorney General Mansoor Awan and PTI leaders.
Justice Mansoor Ali Shah while pronouncing the verdict nullified the decisions of the Election Commission and Peshawar High Court regarding the specific seats of the Sunni Ittehad Council and said that the decision of the Election Commission is against the Constitution. It does not stop, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf was and is a political party.
The Supreme Court issued an order to give reserved seats for women and minorities to PTI and said that PTI is entitled to get reserved seats. give
The decision has said that specific seats in Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Sindh should be given to PTI.
Supreme Court declared PTI as PTI in Parliament and Provincial Assemblies and rejected the appeals of Sunni Ittehad Council.
The court said that other 41 candidates can also give certificates within 14 days that they were candidates of Sunni Ittehad Council, Sunni Ittehad Council cannot take reserved seats as per constitution, PTI as a political party complies with law and constitution.
PTI as a party has a legal and constitutional right to get reserved seats: Court
According to the decision, the Election Commission submitted the data of 80 candidates, the right of a party to participate in the election does not expire due to the loss of election symbols.
Justice Yahya Afridi while delivering the verdict said that PTI as a party has a legal and constitutional right to get certain seats. It will remain so, PTI’s selected candidates cannot be declared as independent candidates of any other party.
Which judges opposed the decision?
Justice Mansoor Ali Shah, Justice Athar Manullah, Justice Shahid Waheed, 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 also opposed the petitions while Justice Yahya Afridi wrote a dissenting note.
Election Commission has not fulfilled its responsibility: Chief Justice of Pakistan
The Chief Justice of Pakistan said that the Election Commission has expelled the members of PTI, and on this basis the decision of the Peshawar High Court is null and void. The Election Commission has wrongly declared the PTI candidates independent. I did not challenge the Election Commission’s decision to declare him independent.
Justice Qazi Faiz Isa said that the Election Commission has not fulfilled its responsibility, the Election Commission should re-distribute the reserved seats, now the elected members of PTI should either declare themselves independent or PTI. There should be no pressure.
Yesterday, the Supreme Court issued the cause list of the case related to the specific seats of the Sunni Ittihad Council, in which it was stated that the judgment of the case will be pronounced at 9 am on July 12, but later the time of the judgment was changed. It was placed at 12 noon.
When did the reserved seats case happen?
- The Sunni Ittehad Council filed an application in the Election Commission on February 21 for obtaining specific seats
- On February 28, the Election Commission reserved its decision on the case related to the specific seats of the Sunni Ittehad Council
- On March 4, the Election Commission gave a 1-4 decision on the Sunni Ittehad Council’s request for reserved seats
- On March 6, the Sunni Ittehad Council approached the Peshawar High Court for specific seats
- On March 14, the Peshawar High Court dismissed the petitions filed for specific seats in the Sunni Unity Council
- The 5-member larger bench of the Peshawar High Court unanimously rejected the petition against the non-allocation of reserved seats of the Sunni Ittehad Council.
- On April 2, the Sunni Ittehad Council filed a petition in the Supreme Court for specific Nishtas
- On May 6, a three-member bench headed by Justice Mansoor Ali Shah suspended the decision of the Peshawar High Court and the Election Commission.
- The three-member bench referred the matter to the Judges Committee for constituting a larger bench as it was a constitutional matter
- On May 31, a full court was constituted to hear the case of specific seats of the Sunni Ittehad Council
- The full court held its first hearing on June 3 in the case related to reserved seats in the Sunni Ittehad Council
- The full court, headed by Chief Justice Qazi Faiz Isa, had reserved the verdict on July 9 after 9 hearings
Position of Sunni Unity Council
The lawyer of the Sunni Unity Council told the court that there are a total of 77 disputed seats, of which 22 are in the National Assembly and 55 are in the Provincial Assemblies.
The Election Commission had suspended 77 controversial reserved seats after the order of the Supreme Court
Among the suspended 22 seats of the National Assembly, 11 seats for women from Punjab and 8 seats from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa are included, 3 reserved seats for minorities are also included in the suspended seats of the National Assembly.
21 seats reserved for women and four reserved for minorities in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly are suspended, while 24 reserved seats for women and 3 seats reserved for minorities in the Punjab Assembly are also suspended.
Two reserved seats for women and one minority seat in the Sindh Assembly are suspended.
Which party got how many seats?
Out of the reserved seats, the PML-N got 14 seats in the National Assembly, the People’s Party got 5 seats and the JUIF got 3 additional seats.
In the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly, JUI-F got 10 seats, PML-N 7, People’s Party 7 and ANP one additional seat.
In the Punjab Assembly, PML-N got 23 seats, People’s Party got 2 seats, Muslim League-Q and Satwat Pakistan got one additional seat each.
In the Sindh Assembly, the People’s Party got two seats and the MQM got one reserved additional seat.
