SC resumes SIC case hearing today

The Supreme Court is going to resume hearing today (Monday) the Sunni Ittehad Council’s (SIC) appeal against an Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) decision not to allocate reserved seats to it in the national and provincial legislatures.

A 13-member full bench led by Chief Justice of Pakistan Qazi Faez Isa is hearing the case, which, according to some key bench members, involves interpretation of the Constitution.

The ECP’s counsel, Sikander Bashir Mohmand, will resume his arguments in support of the ECP’s decision. The counsels for the SIC have already presented their arguments and requested the bench to go for a creative interpretation of the Constitutional provision with regard to reserved seats.

The ECP on December 22, 2023 stripped the PTI of its election symbol in view of irregularities in its intra-party polls. The Supreme Court on January 13 upheld the ECP order, forcing the PTI candidates to contest the February 8 general elections as independents.

These independent returned candidates joined the SIC after the announcement of official election results. The SIC later sought reserved seats in the parliament and provincial assemblies in proportion to its general seats.

However, the ECP on March 1 refused to allot these reserved seats to the SIC and allocated additional reserved seats to other political parties. The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on March 25 also upheld the ECP order, prompting the SIC to approach the apex court.

At the last hearing of the case, the ECP’s counsel had presented a summary of the nomination papers submitted by the PTI backed independent candidates prior to the polls.

Commenting on the summary, one of the bench members—Justice Naeem Akhtar Afghan—has noted that 35 of the 81 PTI backed returned candidates did not disclose their affiliation with the PTI in the nomination papers.