Supreme Court to announce verdict on SIC reserved seats tomorrow

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court of Pakistan will deliver its judgment on Friday (tomorrow) in the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)-backed Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) reserved seats case.

A cause list was released on Thursday.

A second consultative meeting was held under the chairmanship of Chief Justice Qazi Faiz Isa in which all 13 judges of the full court participated.

The full court on Wednesday deliberated for nearly two hours on the reserved seats of the Sunni Alliance Council.

The meeting was attended by Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah, Justice Muneeb Akhtar, Justice Yahya Afridi, Justice Aminuddin 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 Saadat Khan, and Justice Naeem Akhtar Afghan.

Sunni Ittehad Council lawyer Faisal Siddiqui said in the Supreme Court that he will prove that the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has not fulfilled its responsibility. He said this when the court resumed hearing on the SIC’s plea regarding reserved seats for women and minorities. “I will take 15 minutes to argue my point,” he added.

Advocate Siddiqui argued that the ECP claimed that the SIC did not participate in the elections and did not submit the list of candidates for certain seats. He pointed out that the Balochistan Awami Party (BAP) did not win any seats in 2018 but still bagged three reserved seats, accusing the ECP of biased response to BAP elections.

He raised the matter before the ECP before approaching the Supreme Court, adding that the ECP’s claim contradicted its own documents. “Isn’t that distorting the facts?” he questioned.

Justice Mandokhail asked if the ECP’s decision was in accordance with the constitution to which Siddiqui replied that it was in accordance with the 2018 law. Challenged? Siddiqui said that the ECP should have admitted its mistake but acted as if the BAP decision did not exist.

Justice Saadat asked whether BAP participated in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa elections. Siddiqui replied that he contested the election but did not win a single seat. Justice Saadat remarked that the SIC case is different because the SIC did not participate in the election. He asked the lawyer to present arguments now and give a detailed answer later.

Highlighting the difference between a political party and a parliamentary party, Justice Mandukhel said that the decisions of a parliamentary party are independent from the decisions of a political party. Siddiqui Sahib agreed to this.

The court laughed when Justice Mandokhail said the name BAP (Father) strangely.

Justice Mandokhail inquired that if a party does not win one of the three provinces, what will happen? Siddiqui replied that BAP won seats in other provinces but not in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The Chief Justice asked Siddiqui whether he wanted the Supreme Court to take judicial notice of the irregularities in the 2018 elections. Siddiqui said that the court should consider the discriminatory behavior of the ECP.

Chief Justice Isa questioned whether the Election Commission was correct in 2018 and whether the Supreme Court is bound by the narrative of the ECP. He further said that he did not want to embarrass Siddiqui but asked if the 2018 elections were okay.

The bench has to decide whether the reserved seats will be given to SIC, other parties or sent to Parliament for decision.

This was the eighth hearing on the SIC petition. ECP believes that SIC is not entitled to reserved seats, PML-N, PPP, and JUI-F also opposed SIC’s petition for reserved seats for women and minorities.

Justice Athar Minullah had earlier remarked that it was the judiciary’s responsibility to correct the mistakes of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), which unconstitutionally denied the right to a political party.