SIC lawyer seeks time for preparation of reserved seats case in PHC

In the Peshawar High Court, a 5-member larger bench headed by Justice Ishtiaq Ibrahim is hearing the case on the petitions filed by the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) for the reserved seats of women and minorities, reported 24NewsHD TV channel on Wednesday.

The bench includes Justice Ijaz Anwar, Justice Atiq Shah, Justice Shakeel Ahmed and Justice Syed Arshad Ali.

Qazi Anwar, Azam Swati appeared in the court on behalf of the Sunni Ittehad Council, while Nair Bukhari, Faisal Karim Kundi and H Farooq Naik of the People's Party have appeared in the court.

During his arguments SIC Lawyer Qazi Anwar said that since PTI did not get the mark, all the candidates participated in the election as independent candidates, in which most of them won the election.

The court inquired whether any member of the Sunni Ittehad Council had won the election. The chairman of the Sunni Ittehad Council also participated in the election as an independent candidate. When was the list of specific seats collected?

Lawyer Qazi Anwar Advocate said in his arguments that many specific seats of the Sunni Ittehad Council in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab, Sindh and Balochistan were collected. Seats are created, is there any option in the constitution to distribute the specific seats of one party to other parties.

On which the court said that the Election Commission will take a decision to represent the specific seats? If certain seats are not given to a party, will they remain vacant?

During the hearing, the court expressed indignation at the absence of Ali Zafar and Babar Awan and said that we are having to see thousands of cases, this should not be done, we cannot sit for you again and again.

The PTI lawyer replied that Ali Zafar has gone to Adiala Jail, on which the court said that he is not coming, then you should give your arguments.

Qazi Anwar advocate, the lawyer of the Sunni Itehad Council, told the court that the application was filed by Ali Zafar but to give me time to prepare arguments, I was told that we are coming but they did not came today.

The court said that neither the request for adjournment of the hearing nor any other news, a single larger bench has been constituted today, this is an abuse of the people, on which Qazi Anwar requested the court to hear the case tomorrow.  

On which the court said that no, it cannot be heard the case tomorrow. It should be remembered that yesterday in the Peshawar High Court, the petitions filed for the reserved seats of women and minorities of the Sunni Ittehad Council were scheduled for hearing. For this reason, the court has raised six constitutional questions.

However, the court has sought assistance from the Attorney General and Advocate General on constitutional questions.

Reporter: Amir Shehzad