Supreme Court resumes hearing on SIC plea against denial of reserved seats

ISLAMABAD – The Supreme Court on Monday resumed deliberations on the Sunni Ittehad Council’s (SIC) petition concerning the denial of reserved seats for women and minorities in national and provincial assemblies.

The hearing is being conducted by a full 13-member bench, led by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faez Isa. The bench includes 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 Saadat Khan, and Justice Naeem Akhtar Afghan.

Aligned with the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) for the February 8 elections, the SIC faced challenges after the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) withdrew PTI’s electoral symbol, a move ratified by the Supreme Court. Despite this alliance, the ECP did not allocate reserved seats to the SIC due to its failure to submit the necessary list of candidates.

Subsequently, the SIC appealed to the Peshawar High Court (PHC), which supported the ECP’s decision. In April, SIC leader Sahibzada Hamid Raza and the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly speaker approached the Supreme Court to overturn the PHC’s ruling and allocate 67 seats for women and 11 for minorities.

On May 6, a three-member Supreme Court bench, led by Justice Mansoor Ali Shah and including Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar and Justice Athar Minallah, suspended the PHC decision. The case was then referred to a larger bench due to its constitutional implications.

During previous sessions, the chief justice noted that issues might have been avoided if PTI had conducted intra-party elections. Last week, the ECP submitted a response, arguing that SIC does not meet the criteria for reserved seats as it excludes non-Muslims from its membership.

The ECP also stated that the SIC failed to submit the list of candidates by the January 24 deadline. PTI candidates were required to file certificates for PTI-Nazriati’s (PTI-N) symbol, but they later withdrew and were declared independents, subsequently joining SIC. This led to the ECP’s decision, upheld by the PHC, to deny SIC the reserved seats.