The Supreme Court of Pakistan has reserved its verdict in the Sunni Ittehad Council’s (SIC) plea against the Peshawar High Court’s (PHC) verdict upholding the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) decision denying them the reserved seats.
According to court sources, the decision will not be announced today.
Earlier, the case was heard by a 13-member full court bench led by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faez Isa.
The bench comprised 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.
The reserved seats issue came to light after the PTI-backed independent candidates emerged victorious in the Feb 8 elections and later joined the SIC in a bid to claim seats reserved for minorities and women.
However, the PTI suffered a setback after the ECP, citing the party’s failure to submit its list of candidates, denied allocating the reserved seats to the SIC.
The PTI then approached the PHC that upheld the ECP’s decision on the matter.
Subsequently, the SIC moved the SC seeking to set aside the PHC verdict and the allocation of 67 women and 11 minority seats in the assemblies.
