Not SC’s job to aid political party: CJ

The five judges on the full court of the Supreme Court, who disagreed with the majority decision in the reserved seats case, wrote their notes of dissent on Friday, in which they rejected the Sunni Ittehad Council’s (SIC) appeal against the Peshawar High Court (PHC) ruling on the issue.

The five judges are Chief Justice Qazi Faiz Isa, Justice Jamal Khan Mandukhel, Justice Yahya Afridi Justice Aminuddin Khan and Justice Naeem Akhtar Afghan. Chief Justice Isa and Justice Mandokhel issued one note of dissent, while Justice Afghan said that he agreed with the note of Justice Aminuddin Khan.

Chief Justice Isa and Justice Mandokhel wrote in their short note of dissent that they could neither add new words to the Constitution, nor change easily understood words of the Constitution with artificial ones. They said that it was not the Supreme Court’s job to facilitate any political party by ignoring law.

Upholding the decision of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on March 1, 2024, they said that neither the SIC participated in the elections, nor did it submit any list of candidates for the reserved seats for women and minorities.

The judges said reserved seats for women and minorities had been guaranteed by the Constitution, which were distributed under proportional representation. They added that those seats could not be left vacant.

The note further stated that during the hearing, it was revealed that some election candidates had filed affidavits about their affiliation with the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), some submitted certificates of affiliation to the PTI but some did not.

The note said that those who showed commitment to the PTI and did not back down, they should have been declared as the PTI candidates. Hence, the note affirmed, the candidates duly nominated by a political party could not be declared as independents by the ECP.

The note stated that the ECP misinterpreted the Supreme Court’s decision on January 13 regarding the PTI’s intra-party election. However, it added that neither the PTI nor any of its candidates challenged the ECP decision on party affiliation.

The judges partially nullified the decision of the PHC and the ECP to exclude those who showed allegiance to the PTI from the process of reserved seats. The note said that a candidate declaring affiliation to a party could not change his affiliation after the filing of the nomination papers.

Justice Afridi, Justice Khan and Justice Afghan also wrote their notes of dissent. Justice Khan upheld the PHC decision and declared the appeals inadmissible. Justice Afghan expressed his agreement with Justice Khan’s dissenting note.

Justice Afridi said in his dissenting note that those candidates of PTI who maintained their party affiliation in the nomination papers were with the PTI till the end. On the basis of these candidates, he added, reserved seats should be allotted under proportional representation.

The eight other members of the full court, Justice Mansoor Ali Shah, Justice Muneeb Akhtar, Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar, Justice Ayesha Malik, Justice Athar Manullah, Justice Hasan Azhar Rizvi, Justice Shahid Waheed and Justice Irfan Saadat Khan issued the majority decision.