ISLAMABAD: In a major legal victory for the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), the Supreme Court on Friday ruled that the party is entitled to allotment of reserved seats.
Justice Mansoor Ali Shah announced an 8-5 majority verdict, overturning the Peshawar High Court (PHC) order upholding the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) decision denying SIC reserved seats.
Justices Athar Minallah, Shahid Waheed, Muneeb Akhtar, Muhammad Ali Mazhar Ayesha Malik, Syed Hassan Azhar Rizvi and Irfan Saadat Khan upheld the verdict.
The PTI candidates did not contest the polls for a single symbol, forcing them to join hands with the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC), but this could not win the party reserved seats as the ECP decided against them.
In its decision today, the court stated that the absence or denial of an election symbol in no way affects the constitutional or legal rights of a political party to participate in elections, whether general or universal, and to field candidates, and that the commission has a constitutional duty to apply all statutory provisions accordingly.
Some lawyers noted during the proceedings that the apex court had not ruled that the PTI could not contest the general elections as a political party and that the commission had misinterpreted the apex court’s verdict.
According to the judgment, the March 25 judgment of the PHC is set aside. “The March 1 order of the ECP is declared ultra vires the Constitution, without statutory authority and without legal effect,” it said.
The Supreme Court observed that PTI as a political party has a legal and constitutional right to reserved seats.
The Supreme Court dismissed the appeals filed by the SIC and said the party cannot hold reserved seats under the constitution.
