Pakistan SC rules against awarding reserved seats to ally of Imran Khan’s party

Islamabad: Pakistan’s Supreme Court on Friday ruled against awarding the reserved seats to an ally of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), in a blow to jailed former premier Imran Khan’s party.

The case was related to the rejection of a plea by the Election Commission of Pakistan to award the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC), an ally of the PTI, its share of the 70 reserved seats in the National Assembly and another 156 in the four provincial assemblies.

The seats reserved for women and minorities are proportionally awarded to the political parties on the basis of their numerical strength in the assemblies. On July 12 last year, the Supreme Court, by a majority of eight of 13 judges, awarded the reserved seats to the SIC. The judgment was delivered after the SIC had filed a plea challenging the Peshawar High Court decision upholding the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) move to deny it its share of the reserved seats.

However, the ruling had not been implemented by the National Assembly, while the ECP had raised some objections, and review petitions against the order had been filed by the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and the ECP.