The Supreme Court (SC) will take up the Sunni Ittehad Council’s (SIC) plea against the Peshawar High Court verdict on reserved seats on June 24.
On May 6, the Supreme Court suspended the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and Peshawar High Court (PHC) verdicts regarding Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) reserved seats.
The three-member bench, headed by Justice Mansoor Ali Shah and comprising Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar and Justice Athar Minallah, suspended the verdicts related to the allocation of reserved seats to other political parties. Justice Mansoor Ali Shah stated that the case has been scheduled for hearing and the ECP and PHC verdicts are suspended.
A full court, headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Qazi Faez Isa, will take up the plea.
Reserved Seats
The Election Commission had distributed reserved seats for women and minorities among various political parties.
In the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly, according to a notification, the ECP allocated one reserved seat each to Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam Pakistan, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP).
In the Sindh Assembly, reserved seats for women were allocated to Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) and PPP. PPP’s Samita Afzal and MQM-P’s Fouzia Hameed were elected on these reserved seats. Additionally, PPP’s Sadhu Mal alias Surinder Valasai secured a minority seat in the Sindh Assembly.
The ECP allocated three reserved seats for minorities to PML-N, PPP, and JUI-F, which were claimed by the Sunni Ittehad Council. PML-N’s Neelam Meghwar, PPP’s Ramesh Kumar, and JUI-F’s James Iqbal were elected on these minority seats.
