SIC reserved seats case: SC will announce reserved verdict tomorrow

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court of Pakistan will announce its reserved verdict regarding the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) reserved seats case on Friday (tomorrow).

The judgment will be announced by the regular bench of three members headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Qazi Faez Isa.

On Tuesday (July 9), the Supreme Court reserved its decision regarding the Sunni Ittehad Council’s (SIC) appeal against the Peshawar High Court’s (PHC) ruling.

This ruling supported the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) decision to deny SIC the reserved seats.

A 13-member full court bench, led by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faez Isa, heard the case. Other members of the bench included Justices Syed Mansoor Ali Shah, Muneeb Akhtar, Yahya Afridi, Amin-ud-Din Khan, Jamal Khan Mandokhail, Muhammad Ali Mazhar, Athar Minallah, Syed Hassan Azhar Rizvi, Ayesha Malik, Shahid Waheed, Irfan Saadat Khan, and Naeem Akhtar Afghan.

Representing Kanwal Shauzab was Barrister Salman Akram Raja, while Faisal Siddiqui represented SIC.

During the hearing, SIC’s lawyer argued that the ECP’s decision to allocate reserved seats to the Balochistan Awami Party (BAP) was lawful. He questioned whether a party with 18 general seats could be allocated 30 reserved seats. CJP Isa responded that according to this logic, SIC, which won no seats, should not get any reserved seats.

The SIC’s counsel pointed out that the ECP had allocated reserved seats to the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) and that SIC chief Hamid Raza had shown his affiliation with PTI.

The Chief Justice remarked that accepting these arguments would result in the reserved seats going to PTI, but Siddiqui argued that they should go to SIC, which has parliamentary representation.

Barrister Raja contended that PTI-backed candidates were declared independent by the ECP and criticized the ECP for not submitting complete documents to the court.

Justice Minallah commented that the ECP failed to fulfill its constitutional duties and attempted to suppress the actual record.

The court discussed the rights of voters and the legitimacy of SIC’s claims, with Justice Waheed criticizing the ECP for acting as a partisan entity.

After the arguments, the verdict was reserved, with CJP Isa stating that the decision would be announced after consultations, though no date was provided.

The issue arose when over 80 PTI-backed independent candidates joined SIC to claim reserved seats for minorities and women after winning the February 8 elections.

The ECP denied these seats to SIC due to PTI’s failure to submit a candidate list, a decision upheld by PHC. SIC then appealed to the Supreme Court, seeking the allocation of 67 women and 11 minority seats.

The reserved seats are crucial as they affected the opposition’s strength in the National Assembly and provincial assemblies. The PHC’s ruling had allowed the ruling coalition, including PML-N and PPP, to secure a two-thirds majority. However, the Supreme Court’s suspension of the ECP order temporarily reversed this.

The federal government and the ECP opposed SIC’s plea, arguing that reserved seats should only be given to parties that contested the elections, won seats, and submitted candidate lists. PML-N also argued that SIC did not qualify as it neither contested the elections nor provided a candidate list.