Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has sought the Supreme Court's (SC) intervention to enforce its ruling on reserved seats, as reported by ARY News. Advocate Azhar Bhandari has submitted a plea, urging the court to instruct the Election Commission to comply with the judgment. The petition seeks to compel the Election Commission to grant affiliation certificates to independent candidates and to act on the directive issued on July 12. Furthermore, the petition calls for the dismissal of the Election Commission's request for clarification on the verdict. PTI has highlighted the undue delay caused by the Election Commission's refusal to implement the judgment.
A 13-member bench led by Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa has affirmed PTI's eligibility for the reserved seats, significantly impacting Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif's ruling coalition. Justice Mansoor Ali Shah delivered the 8-5 majority verdict, overruling the Peshawar High Court's (PHC) decision that upheld the Election Commission's denial of reserved seats to the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC), according to ARY News. Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa, along with Justices Jamal Mandokhail, Naeem Afghan, Yahya Afridi, and Ameenuddin Khan, dissented from the majority decision.
The issue of reserved seats became prominent after over 80 PTI-supported candidates won in the February 8 elections, as reported by ARY News. The SIC subsequently approached the ECP on February 21, seeking the allocation of reserved seats. However, the ECP, citing PTI's failure to submit a list of candidates, denied the SIC the reserved seats in a 4-1 majority verdict on March 4. The ECP allocated the reserved seats for women and minorities to other political parties. The PTI-backed SIC challenged the ECP's decision in court due to PTI's missed deadline for candidate submission. The Peshawar High Court upheld the ECP's decision, prompting PTI to contest the ruling.
According to a notification, the ECP allocated one reserved seat each to Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam Pakistan, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), and Pakistan People's Party (PPP) in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa assembly. The reserved seats for women were allocated to Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) and PPP, with PPP's Samita Afzal and MQM-P's Fouzia Hameed in the Sindh Assembly, as reported by ARY News. The PHC verdict enabled the ruling coalition, including PML-N, PPP, and other allies, to secure a two-thirds majority in the National Assembly, increasing PML-N's seats to 123 and PPP's to 73, while the SIC retained 82 seats.
