The Supreme Court of Pakistan overturned the denial of reserved seats to the PTI-backed Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) on Friday, marking a significant legal victory for Imran Khan’s party.
A 13-member bench of the top court, headed by Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa, delivered the verdict. The court declared, “The withdrawal of an election symbol cannot disqualify a political party from elections. The PTI was and is a political party.”
In March, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) had ruled in a 4-1 decision that the SIC was not entitled to reserved seats due to “non-curable legal defects” and the failure to submit a mandatory party list for those seats. The ECP’s decision redistributed the seats among other parliamentary parties, with the PML-N, PPP, and JUI-F benefiting from the additional seats. This verdict was rejected by the PTI as unconstitutional.
In response, the SIC challenged the ECP’s decision, but the Peshawar High Court (PHC) dismissed their plea. Subsequently, in April, the SIC, led by party chief Sahibzada Hamid Raza, petitioned the Supreme Court to overturn the PHC judgment.
On May 6, the Supreme Court suspended both the PHC judgment and the ECP decision to deprive the SIC of reserved seats. The court ordered the present petitions to be reviewed by a three-judge committee, considering the case’s importance in interpreting constitutional provisions.
Following the Supreme Court’s decision, the ECP suspended the victory notifications of 77 members of the national and provincial assemblies who were elected to those seats.
