The Supreme Court has ruled that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) is eligible to hold reserved seats.

Justice Mansoor Ali Shah delivered the ruling with a majority of 8-5 on a petition submitted by the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC), which is a political ally of the PTI.

Justice Athar Minallah, Justice Shahid Waheed, Muneeb Akhtar, Muhammad Ali Mazhar, Ayesha Malik, Syed Hassan Azhar Rizvi, and Irfan Saadat Khan issued a favourable ruling in support of the PTI.

The Supreme Court invalidated the decision of the Peshawar High Court, which had previously upheld the Election Commission’s ruling to deny the reserved seats to the SIC.

The Supreme Court, in its finding, declared that the Election Commission of Pakistan’s decision to assign reserved seats to the ruling alliance was illegal.

The court granted SIC’s petition and determined that the party is qualified to receive the allocation of reserved seats. The highest court acknowledged the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) as a political party and directed the party lead by Imran Khan to provide the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) with a list of candidates for reserved seats within a period of 15 days.

The ruling stated that candidates from the PTI cannot be classified as independent candidates or representatives of any other party. It further pointed out that the ECP had made an erroneous declaration by categorising PTI members as independents.

On Tuesday, the court concluded the hearing on a series of appeals filed by the SIC and postponed its decision.

The full bench, led by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) ISA, also includes Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah, Justice Muneeb Akhtar, Justice Yahya Afridi, Justice Amin-ud-Din Khan, Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail, Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar, Justice Athar Minallah, Justice Syed Hassan Azhar Rizvi, Justice Ayesha Malik, Justice Shahid Waheed, Justice Irfan Saadat Khan, and Justice Naeem Akhtar Afghan.

Issue regarding the allocation of reserved seats

The controversy surrounding reserved seats gained attention following the success of more than 80 independent candidates supported by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) in the February 8 elections.

On February 21, the SIC contacted the ECP to request the allotment of reserved seats.

Nevertheless, the PTI faced a setback when the electoral board, based on the party’s failure to submit its list of candidates, refused to allocate the reserved seats to the SIC through its 4-1 majority judgement on March 4.

The electoral commission allocated the designated seats for women and minorities among the remaining political parties.

CJP Isa asserts that PTI’s decision to join SIC was a self-destructive act.

The PTI-supported SIC filed a petition in court since the ECP declined to assign the reserved seats to the party, citing its failure to submit the list of candidates before the deadline. The Peshawar High Court (PHC) confirmed the decision made by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), which prompted the Sindh Information Commission (SIC) to file an appeal with the Supreme Court.

The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly has assigned one reserved seat each to Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam Pakistan, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) based on a notification from the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).

The Sindh Assembly has assigned a reserved seat for women to both the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) and the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP). Samita Afzal from the PPP and Fouzia Hameed from the MQM-P have been elected on reserved seats.

In addition, PPP’s Sadhu Mal, also known as Surinder Valasai, won a seat reserved for minorities in the Sindh Assembly.

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) assigned three designated seats for minority representatives to the political parties PML-N, PPP, and JUI-F. However, these seats were contested by the Sunni Ittehad Council. Neelam Meghwar from PML-N, Ramesh Kumar from PPP, and James Iqbal from JUI-F were chosen to represent the minority seats.

Following that, the decision made by the PHC granted the ruling coalition, which includes the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), and other allies, the ability to secure a two-thirds majority in the National Assembly. The judgement resulted in the PML-N’s seats increasing to 123 and the PPP’s seats increasing to 73, while the SIC maintained its 82 seats.