Review petition asks number of questions including whether SIC should be granted the reserved seats
ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) on Monday filed a review petition in the Supreme Court against reserved seats verdict that declared the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) eligible for the reserved seats for minorities and women.
The ruling party has nominated 11 respondents in the plea including the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) and its chairman Hamid Raza, praying the court to suspend its ruling dated July 12, 2024, on the reserved seats.
The petitioner claimed the apex court’s verdict was silent on some points.
The review petition asked a number of questions including whether the SIC should be granted the reserved seats.
It questioned if reserved seats could be granted to a political party who had not submitted a party list within the prescribed time, whether a political party can be given reserved seats whose candidates have not even filed nomination papers within the time provided by the Election Commission of Pakistan and if independents could even join a political party which did not win a single general seat in parliament.
The plea also raised question if the seats could be left vacant or have to be distributed amongst the political parties contesting for the said seats.
The petition has been filed in response the apex court ruling last week, that declared the PTI eligible for the allocation of reserved seats.
The decision not only paved the way for the PTI’s return to the parliament, which was kicked out of the February 8 polls owing to the ECP’s December 2023 ruling, but has also increased the pressure on the coalition alliance by changing the composition of the National Assembly.
The 8-5 majority verdict declared that the lack or denial of an election symbol does not in any manner affect the constitutional or legal rights of a political party to participate in an election, whether general or by, and to field candidates and that the commission is under a constitutional duty to apply all statutory provisions accordingly.
A timeline of reserved seats saga
The reserved seats issue first emerged after over 80 PTI-backed independent candidates emerged victorious in the February 8 elections and subsequently joined the SIC in a bid to claim seats reserved for minorities and women.
The SIC then approached the ECP on February 21 seeking allocation of reserved seats. However, the PTI suffered a setback after the electoral body, citing the party’s failure to submit its list of candidates, denied allocating the reserved seats to the SIC via its 4-1 majority verdict on March 4.
