Stay on NA reserved seats extended till 13th

PHC summons AGP on next date of hearing

PESHAWAR/ ISLAMABAD:

The Peshawar High Court on Thursday extended its stay order on the oath-taking by members of the National Assembly allotted reserved seats till March 13 on a plea filed by the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC), while PTI leader Barrister Ali Zafar said his party would challenge before the top court the “tampering” with Forms-45 issued by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).

A five-member larger bench of the PHC, headed by Justice Ishtiaq Ibrahim, heard the petition filed by the SIC – a little known party in which the PTI independent members found refuge – against the ECP’s decision to turn down its request for its share of reserved seats for women and minorities.
The other judges on the bench included Justices Ijaz Anwar, SM Attique Shah, Shakeel Ahmed and Syed Arshad Ali.

A day earlier, a two-member bench of the PHC restrained the reserved seats MNAs from taking oath for a day and referred the case to the high court’s chief justice for the formation of a larger bench.
On Thursday, PTI lawyer Babar Awan informed the larger bench about the presidential elections scheduled for March 9 and argued that a party with 93 seats in the NA was not being allocated its due share of reserved seats.

He added that other parties with just a seat each in the lower house had been allotted two reserved seats.

Awan claimed that the ECP had “gifted” the reserved seats to other parties.

Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Additional Attorney General Sanaullah sought time for the preparation of arguments in the case.

Read: Reserved seats: PTI announces protest against ECP on Sunday

He informed the court that Attorney General for Pakistan (AGP) Mansoor Usman Awan was busy with another case being heard in the SC and that was why he could not appear before the court.
Justice Ibrahim recalled that the PHC had summoned the AGP. To this, PTI lawyer Qazi Anwar replied that a new AGP would be appointed on Friday (today) and they would then appear before the PHC.
The court summoned the AGP on the next date of hearing and extended the stay on the petition till March 13, when it would be resumed.

In a related development, SIC Chairman Sahibzada Hamid Raza filed a petition before the Lahore High Court challenging the ECP’s decision to not allot the reserved seats in the Punjab Assembly to his party.
In his plea, the SIC chief contended that his party should be allotted its share of the reserved seats in the provincial assembly as the ECP was neither a tribunal, nor a court. He added that it did not matter if the SIC contested the polls or not.

The SIC chairman argued that the action of the ECP was equivalent to amending the Constitution.
Maintaining that the commission had exceeded its jurisdiction, he asked the court to declare Section 104, Rule 94 of the Election Act as “unconstitutional”.

Separately, while interacting with the media outside the Islamabad High Court, PTI’s Zafar in response to query said his party would challenge the matter of Forms-45 before the SC.

On the issue of reserved seats not being allotted to the SIC, Zafar said the matter was sub judice as it being heard in the PHC and its decision would be valid for the NA and provincial legislatures.

Zafar further said the PTI would challenge the issue of the reserved seats in the Punjab Assembly before the LHC on Friday and the party’s legal team had prepared the draft of the petition for this purpose.

The PTI leader disclosed that party leader Sher Afzal Marwat would become a member of the Public Accounts Committee.

He continued that Marwat had been nominated for this post by PTI founding chairman and former premier Imran Khan.