Supreme Court resumes hearing on SIC's appeal against reserved seat denial

ISLAMABAD – The Supreme Court has resumed its hearing on the Sunni Ittehad Council’s (SIC) appeal against the Peshawar High Court (PHC) ruling that denied them reserved seats.

A 13-member full court, led by Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa, is reviewing the case. The bench includes Justices Syed Mansoor Ali Shah, Muneeb Akhtar, Yahya Afridi, Amin-ud-Din Khan, Jamal Khan Mandokhail, Muhammad Ali Mazhar, Malik, Athar Minallah, Syed Hassan Azhar Rizvi, Shahid Waheed, Irfan Saadat Khan, and Naeem Akhtar Afghan.

This hearing follows the submission of a written response from Attorney General Mansoor Usman Awan, urging the court to reject SIC’s appeal for reserved seats for women and minorities in the National and provincial assemblies. The 30-page submission argues that such seats are allocated only to political parties that win at least one general seat and submit a list of candidates.

According to the AGP, independently elected candidates can count towards reserved seats only if they join a party within three days of the official results announcement. The SIC did not contest the general elections as a political party nor did they submit a candidate list for reserved seats, as required by the Election Act, 2017.

The AGP emphasized that granting SIC’s appeal would undermine democracy and weaken participating political parties. He clarified that reserved seats are for political parties, not independent candidates or non-contesting parties.

In a related development, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has petitioned to join the case, arguing that both PTI and SIC were wrongly deprived of reserved seats. PTI claims the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) unconstitutionally allocated these seats to other parties, contrary to voter expectations.

The reserved seats controversy began after PTI-backed independents won the February 8 elections and joined SIC to claim reserved seats. The ECP denied these claims, citing SIC’s failure to submit a candidate list by the deadline. The PHC upheld the ECP’s decision, prompting SIC to seek relief from the Supreme Court.

On May 6, a three-member Supreme Court bench suspended the PHC’s verdict and referred the case to a larger bench for constitutional interpretation. The ECP argued that SIC does not qualify for reserved seats as it doesn’t include non-Muslims and failed to meet submission deadlines.

This issue is critical as PTI-backed independents, forming a significant part of the opposition, lost 77 reserved seats in the National and provincial assemblies due to the PHC’s decision.