A full-court bench of the Supreme Court set aside orders of the Peshawar High Court and Election Commission of Pakistan taking away reserved seats from the Sunni Ittehad Council. The court ruled that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf should be considered a political party and given reserved seats.

“Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf was and is a political party which secured and won… general seats in the national and provincial assemblies in the general elections of 2024,” said the majority decision read by Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah.

The decision was made by a majority of eight and announced by Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa. However, the majority order was read out by Justice Mansoor Ali Shah.

“It is declared that lack or denial of an election symbol doesn’t in any manner affect the constitutional or legal rights of a political party to participate in an election. PTI shall be entitled to reserved seats for women and minorities in the national assembly accordingly,” Justice Mansoor added.

The PTI has been given 15 days to file documents that will allow the party to get the reserved seats.

Justice Mansoor Ali Shah, Justice Munib Akhtar, Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar, Justice Ayesha Malik, Justice Athar Minallah, Justice Hassan Rizvi, Justice Shahid Waheed and Justice Irfan Saadat made the majority judgement.

Justice Aminuddin Khan and Justice Naeem Akhtar Afghan dismissed the appeals, while yahya Afridi wrote a separate note.

CJP Qazi Faez Isa and Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail ruled that the ECP had wrongly interpreted the January 13 order.

The decision was reserved after lengthy proceedings on July 9.

Led by Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa, the bench includes Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah, Justice Munib Akhtar, Justice Yahya Afridi, Justice Amin-ud-Din Khan, Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail, Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar, Justice Ayesha Malik, Justice Athar Minallah, Justice Syed Hasan Azhar Rizvi, Justice Shahid Waheed, Justice Irfan Saadat Khan, and Justice Naeem Akhtar Afghan.

A supplementary cause list initially said that the decision would be announced by a three-member bench at 9:30 am. However, a cause list issued later said that the decision would be announced at noon.

The SC organised two separate meetings of the full court to deliberate the decision after it was reserved.

Background

Members of Imran Khan’s political party, the PTI, were forced to run as independent candidates in the February general elections after the SC ruled that the party’s internal elections were flawed. As a result, the PTI candidates were not allowed to use the party’s cricket bat symbol during the campaign.

Despite running as independents, the PTI-backed candidates won the most seats in the National Assembly. To secure the reserved seats, they joined the religiopolitical party, the SIC.

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The reserved seats are allocated to different political parties in proportion to the number of general seats each party wins during elections. This is done to promote greater political representation and inclusion of these traditionally underrepresented groups in the government.

The ECP decided not to allocate the reserved seats to them on “technical grounds” and distributed the SIC’s share among other parties.

The outcome of the case can be politically significant, there are possibilities that it may impact the National Assembly composition. Khan’s party is hopeful of winning 78 reserved seats in Parliament given to the rival parties in elections.

In a letter to the apex court, the country’s top electoral authority reiterated that the SIC was ineligible for the reserved seats and there was “no flaw” in the ECP’s and PHC’s decisions as it was “under the Constitution and law.”

The ECP noted that non-Muslims cannot be SIC members under the party’s constitution.