High-stakes hearings scheduled at SC next week

In the upcoming week, the apex court will hear three important political cases—the Faizabad sit-in review case, the Islamabad High Court (IHC) judges’ letter case, and the SIC seat allocation case.

The hearing on the Faizabad sit-in case is scheduled for Monday, May 6. Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJ) Qazi Faez Isa will head a three-member bench consisting of Justice Irfan Saadat Khan and Justice Naeem Akhtar Afghan.

There is a possibility of discussion on the final report of the Faizabad sit-in inquiry commission during the court proceedings. The court has issued notices to the parties involved.

A six-member larger bench led by Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa will resume hearing on May 7 the suo motu case initiated in view of a letter penned by six IHC judges in March, highlighting alleged meddling by spy agencies in judicial matters

All the high courts have already submitted their proposals for stopping alleged interference of intelligence agencies. The Balochistan High Court (BHC) in its proposal said the issue should be resolved administratively or judicially by the respective high court.

Read Agencies given clean chit in Faizabad sit-in probe

It noted that neither high courts work under the Supreme Court nor does the Supreme Court control the high courts administratively.

The SIC's appeal against the Peshawar High Court's (PHC) decision not to allocate it the reserved seats in the national and provincial legislatures has also been scheduled for hearing.

Justice Mansoor Ali Shah will lead a three-member bench consisting of Justice Athar Minallah and Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar, which will hear the appeal on Wednesday, May 8. The Registrar's Office has issued notices to the SIC and the speaker of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Assembly.

The PTI, the former ruling party, was stripped of its election symbol in December 2023 due to its failure to hold intra-party elections properly. The SC later upheld the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) order, compelling the party to field its candidates in the February 8 general elections as independents.

However, the independents emerged as the largest group in the National Assembly. According to the country’s election laws, independent candidates must join a political party within three days after the announcement of official election results, and the PTI-backed returning candidates joined the SIC.

Despite this move, the polls oversight authority refused to allocate reserved seats to the SIC because it had not submitted its list of nominees for the reserved seats ahead of the polls.

The PHC later upheld the ECP order ruling that no candidate of the SIC had participated in the polls under the party’s banner. In the recent by-elections, Aminullah Khan of the SIC won from the NA-44 DI Khan constituency. Similarly, the SIC won one seat in the K-P Assembly in the by-elections.