In a mammoth legal victory for Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, the Supreme Court has declared that the PTI was eligible for reserved seats and overturned the verdict of Peshawar High Court (PHC) and Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) denying Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) allocation of reserved seats, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.

Striking down the ECP's decision of allocating reserved seats to the ruling coalition as “unconstitutional” on Friday, the 13-judge full court pronounced the majority verdict with 8-5 vote, also declaring as null and void ECP’s notification regarding reserved seats.

“As a political party, the PTI is entitled to its reserved seats,” said Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa while reading out the order, which was supported by eight judges and opposed by five of the 13-member full court bench.

Supreme Court’s Senior Puisne Judge Justice Mansoor Ali Shah read the 8-5 majority verdict, nullifying the Peshawar High Court and ECP’s order, denying allocation of seats reserved for women and minorities to the SIC.

The apex court reserved the verdict on the SIC’s appeals on Tuesday after conducting nine hearings on the SIC's appeals after all parties including the federal government and the ECP presented their arguments against the SIC's plea.

The 13-member full bench comprised CJP Qazi Faez Isa, Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah, Justice Muneeb Akhtar, Justice Yahya Afridi, Justice Amin-ud-Din Khan, Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail, Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar, Justice Athar Minallah, Justice Syed Hassan Azhar Rizvi, Justice Ayesha Malik, Justice Shahid Waheed, Justice Irfan Saadat Khan and Justice Naeem Akhtar Afghan.

On the other hand, strict security arrangements were made on the routes leading to the Supreme Court. The Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) held a large protest outside the apex court today as the verdict was awaited.

The complete details of the verdict will be issued later

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojsxEUy4p3s

The apex court remarked that the PTI was eligible for reserved seats. "The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) was a political party and remains a political party," the Supreme Court order said while instructing the PTI to submit a list of its reserved seats candidates within 15 days.

According to the verdict, the PHC's judgment dated March 25 was set aside. "The order of the ECP dated March 1 is declared as ultra vires to the Constitution, without lawful authority, and of no legal effect," the SC order said. 

"The notification of various dates, whereby the person respectively mentioned, therein, being the persons identified in the commission's notification dated May 13, have been declared to be returned candidates for reserved seats for women and minorities in the national and provincial assemblies are declared to be ultra vires to the Constitution, without lawful authority, and of no legal effect, and are quashed from May 6 onwards, being the date an interim order was issued by the Supreme Court," said the verdict. 

Justices in PTI support

The verdict was supported by Justices Athar Minallah, Shahid Waheed, Muneeb Akhtar, Muhammad Ali Mazhar Ayesha Malik, Syed Hassan Azhar Rizvi, and Irfan Saadat Khan.

The court 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.

"PTI was and is a political party, which secured general seats in the national and provincial assemblies in the general elections of 2024," read the verdict.

The top court remarked that PTI, as a political party, has a legal and constitutional right to reserved seats.

Rejecting the appeals filed by the SIC, the apex court said that the party cannot take reserved seats as per the Constitution.

The ruling said that the PTI should present a list of eligible candidates for the reserved seats to the electoral body within 15 days after the verdict. It added that the ECP should then publish the list of reserved seats of the candidates on its website within seven days.

"The seats allocated to the PTI after this stage will be considered as their seats. Once the party gets its seats, it will be eligible for the reserved seats," said the ruling.

PTI valid political party

PTI was a valid political party and allowed the grant of reserved seats for women and minorities proportionate to the general seats the party had secured in the national and provincial assemblies.

The court further declared that of the 80 candidates claiming to be backed by PTI, only 39 were shown by the commission to have filed their nomination papers as PTI candidates or with PTI's official ticket. Thus, these 39 seats were and are the returned candidates of PTI and have secured seats for the party.

The court further granted the PTI 15 days to submit requisite notarised documents certifying that the remaining 41 candidates too had contested the general elections on behalf of the PTI. The commission will then seek confirmation from the PTI about these candidates. These seats will be awarded to the PTI in the respective assemblies if confirmed.

The eight judges who held that PTI should be given reserved seats included Justice Mansoor Ali Shah, Justice Muneeb Akhtar, Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar, Justice Ayesha Malik, Justice Athar Minallah, Justice Syed Hassan Ali Rizvi, Justice Shahid Waheed, and Justice Irfan Saadat Khan.

The court further ordered that the Sunni Ittehad Council does not fulfill the conditions to be recognised as a political party in assembly and thus cannot be allocated reserved seats for women and minorities. The PTI, however, does fulfill the conditions for a political party and can be allocated reserved seats. 

Justice Isa’s minority order

In his minority order, Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail and CJP Qazi Faez Isa held that the SIC did not contest the general elections as a political party.

The CJP further said that the ECP had incorrectly interpreted the January 13 verdict of the Supreme Court regarding the intraparty elections of PTI and declared candidates who had filed nomination papers as PTI candidates with PTI affiliation certificates as independent candidates. "The ECP had no authority to declare validly nominated candidates of a political party to be independent candidates."

CJP Isa said that candidates who had once declared themselves members of a political party could not declare themselves independent candidates after the last date for withdrawing candidature.

Justice Isa noted that neither the PTI nor any candidate approached the Supreme Court or high courts challenging the ECP's decision to challenge their declaration as independent candidates.

Justice Isa continued that if any candidate had filed nomination papers as a PTI candidate and had not submitted documents showing affiliation with any other political party by the last date of filing nomination papers, they should have been treated by the ECP as a member of the PTI parliamentary party. But the needful was not done by the ECP. "Consequently, the PTI, as a parliamentary party, is entitled to reserved seats."

The CJP noted that the ECP should recalculate and reallocate the reserved seats. "We must ensure that words are not read into the Constitution nor to ascribe artificial meanings to commonly understood words. We must ascribe to validly enacted laws and must not do anything to hinder or facilitate a political party by ignoring the law's mandate.

Ruling ‘weakens’ govt

The Supreme Court ruling declaring PTI eligible for allocation of reserved seats has weakened the government of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.

His Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz is propped up by a coalition of religious and regional parties and a supply and demand deal with long-term rivals the Pakistan Peoples Party.

Gallup Pakistan analyst Bilal Gilani told AFP that "PTI would try for making a political point about this -- that the government is shaky and could fall".

"It validates their feeling that they've been victimised", he added, but noted "the majority still lies with the current coalition".

Two-thirds majority lost

After Friday's verdict, PTI will get additional 77 seats in national and provincial assemblies, which strengthens the party in parliament.

Under election rules, parties are allocated 70 reserved seats – 60 for women, 10 for non-Muslims – in proportion to the number of seats they win. This completes the National Assembly’s total strength of 336 seats.

Resultantly, the ruling coalition lost a two-thirds majority in the lower house of Parliament for now, with its numerical strength shrinking to 209 from 228. In the House of 336, the magic figure to attain a two-thirds majority comes to 224. The PML-N’s strength in the House has reduced from 121 to 107 while PPP’s from 72 to 67.

The SC verdict pertains to the SIC's plea challenging the Peshawar High Court's (PHC) decision, which upheld the Election Commission of Pakistan's (ECP) move to deny reserved seats in the assemblies to PTI-backed lawmakers.

The issue of reserved seats arose following the February 8 elections, where over 80 independent candidates, backed by PTI, emerged victorious and later joined the SIC.

It followed CJP Isa's January 10 ruling that effectively deprived the PTI of its 'cricket bat' election symbol ahead of the February 8 general elections.

The PTI-back candidates, who had emerged victorious in the elections and joined the SIC after their party's symbol was taken, sought to claim seats reserved for minorities and women. However, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) rejected this allocation, citing the SIC's failure to submit its list of candidates.

In response, the SIC approached the Peshawar High Court (PHC), which upheld the ECP's decision.

Dissatisfied with this outcome, the SIC took the matter to the Supreme Court, seeking to overturn the PHC ruling and secure 67 reserved seats for women and 11 for minorities.

The allocation of these reserved seats is crucial as it significantly impacts the composition of the opposition benches. The PTI-backed SIC candidates lost 77 reserved seats in the National Assembly and provincial assemblies due to the PHC's verdict.

The PHC ruling allowed the ruling coalition, comprising the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), and other allies, to gain a two-thirds majority in the National Assembly. This decision increased the PML-N's seats to 123 and the PPP's to 73, while the SIC held 82 seats.

Reporter Amanat Gishkori