PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Couty (PHC) on Wednesday blocked the swearing-in of lawmakers notified of reserved seats denied to the Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)-backed Pakistan Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC).
The directions were issued during today’s hearing presided over by Justice Ishtiaq Ibrahim and Justice Shakeel Ahmad. The court issued a stay order preventing the members from taking oath and directed the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to submit its reply in the matter by Thursday.
The development comes as the party announced that it would challenge the election body’s verdict, issued on Monday, rejecting the SIC’s request — joined by PTI-backed independent candidates — for allotment of reserved seats.
The Electoral Body instead accepted applications from opposing parties and decided that seats in the National Assembly and provincial assemblies would not remain vacant and would be allocated by proportional representation of political parties based on the mandates won by the political parties.
In its ruling, the ECP said the SIC could not claim a share in the reserved seats for women “due to incurable procedural and legal defects and violation of the mandatory provisions of the Constitution”.
Reserved seats were given to all political parties according to their strength in the assemblies, except the PTI-backed SIC.
Following the allocation of reserved seats, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and its allies won a two-thirds majority (230 members) in the National Assembly.
