The full bench of the Supreme Court resumes hearing on SIC’s plea on reservation of seats

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Tuesday began hearing a petition filed by the Sunni Itihad Committee (SIC), an ally of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), against the denial of reserved seats for women and minorities.

A 13-member full bench headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Qazi Faez Isa presided over the hearing.

The bench comprised 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 Ayesha A Malik, Justice Athar Minallah, Justice Syed Hassan Azhar Rizvi, Justice Shahid Waheed, Justice Irfan Sadat Khan and Justice Naeem Akhtar Afghan.

During the previous hearing on Monday, Chief Justice CJP Isa questioned why PTI had “committed suicide” by deciding to merge with SIC after the February 8 elections.

The chief justice asked: “Since the Tehreek-e-Insaf is a political party, why should independent candidates leave it? Why would you join another party whose views are contrary to yours and bring about your own destruction?”

The Chief Jewish Council said that if the independent candidate had stayed in the Justice and Development Party, there would not have been any problems today.

SIC reserved seats issue

Independent candidates backed by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), who won the February 8 elections, joined the SIC to contest seats reserved for minorities and women.

However, this did not help the party as the Election Commission did not allot reserved seats to the SIC citing its failure to submit a list of candidates.

The party then appealed to the PHC on the issue and the court upheld the election body’s decision.

In April, SIC chairperson Sahibzada Hamid Raza and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provincial assembly speaker moved the Supreme Court seeking to quash the PHC ruling and allot 67 women and 11 minority seats in the assembly.

On May 6, a three-judge bench of the Supreme Court headed by Justice Mansoor Ali Shah, including Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar and Justice Athar Minallah, stayed the PHC’s verdict.

Since the matter required constitutional interpretation, the court then referred the case to a committee of judges to constitute a larger bench.

Meanwhile, the ECP had filed its response in the Supreme Court last week saying that the SIC was not eligible for reserved seats as the party did not allow non-Muslims to join.

The Election Commission told the Supreme Court that the reserved seats cannot be allotted to the SIC as the party had failed to submit its list of candidates before the January 24 deadline.

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