After the Pakistan Muslim League (N), the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) has also challenged the decision of reserved seats in the Supreme Court.

The Peoples Party has filed a review petition in the Supreme Court against the July 12 decision on reserved seats. Farooq H. Naek filed the petition on behalf of the Peoples Party.

The review petition has requested the reversal of the July 12 decision on reserved seats.

In the petition filed by the Peoples Party, the stance taken was that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) was given undue reserved seats.

It may be recalled that on July 15, 2022, the Pakistan Muslim League (N) had filed a review petition in the Supreme Court against the decision on reserved seats.

The Pakistan Muslim League (N) had also filed a petition for a stay order on the July 12 decision. The petition had maintained that the Pakistan Muslim League (N) is the largest political party in the parliament.

On May 6, the Supreme Court suspended the March 1 decision of the Election Commission of Pakistan to exclude the Sunni Tehreek Council from the reserved seats for women and minorities, and referred the matter to a larger bench.

On May 3, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) case regarding not getting the reserved seats was scheduled for hearing in the Supreme Court.

On March 4, the Election Commission of Pakistan had rejected the applications of the Sunni Tehreek Council for the allocation of reserved seats.

The 5-member commission headed by Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja had reserved the decision after hearing the applications on February 28.

The Chief Justice of Pakistan, Qazi Faez Isa, Justice Jamal Mandokhail, Justice Naeem Akhtar, Justice Aminuddin Khan, and Justice Yahya Afridi opposed the petitions.

The petition had also requested that the review petition be heard expeditiously, and further stated that the Supreme Court should review the July 12 decision and overturn it.

The petition had requested that the Supreme Court grant a stay order on the decision until the final verdict of the case.

The petition had also requested that the decision on the allocation of reserved seats to PTI be reviewed, stating that PTI had not even requested the allocation of the reserved seats.

The petition had further maintained that the constitution is clear, and the inclusion of independent candidates can happen within three days, but the court did not even hear the arguments of the parties before deciding to allocate the reserved seats to PTI.

The petition had requested the Supreme Court to review the decision on the reserved seats.

It may be noted that on July 12, the Supreme Court had declared the decisions of the Peshawar High Court and the Election Commission in the case of the reserved seats of the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) void, and declared PTI as the rightful claimant of the reserved seats.

Justice Qazi Faez Isa had stated that the decision was made by an 8/5 ratio, with Justice Mansoor Ali Shah, Justice Munib Akhtar, Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar, Justice Shahid Waheed, Justice Hassan Azhar Rizvi, Justice Ayesha Malik, Justice Athar Minallah, and Justice Ijaz ul Ahsan giving the majority decision.

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Electoral Commission of Pakistan (ECP) dismissed the Sunni Alliance Council’s request for the allocation of reserved seats under Section 6 of Article 53 of the Constitution and Section 104 of the Election Act.

In a 22-page majority decision, the ECP stated that the Sunni Alliance Council is not entitled to reserved seats due to non-compliance with the law and failure to provide the party list at the beginning.

The decision mentioned that the reserved seats will not remain vacant and will be distributed among political parties through the method of proportional representation.

The ECP approved the request to allocate all vacant reserved seats to the Pakistan Muslim League (N), Pakistan Peoples Party, Muttahida Qaumi Movement Pakistan, and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Fazlur Rehman (JUI-F).

The Chief Election Commissioner, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and Balochistan members supported the majority decision, while the Punjab member, Babar Bharwana, dissented.

Subsequently, on March 4, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) announced that it will challenge the ECP’s decision to not allocate reserved seats as “unconstitutional” in the Supreme Court.