'ECP justified in case of 41 candidates'

The constitutional bench (CB) of the Supreme Court on Monday issued notices to respondents on a petition filed by the PTI led Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government to become a party in a case related to allocation of reserved seats to Imran Khan's party.

During the hearing, the counsel for the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC)—a party comprising PTI-backed independent parliamentarians—stated that the SIC intended to file a review petition against the CB's decision to dismiss its objections to the bench.

The eleven-member CB, led by Justice Aminuddin Khan, heard the petitions challenging the SC's July 2024 majority order for allocation of reserved seats to the PTI.

At the outset, Justice Khan remarked that the SC granted a relief to the PTI initially meant for the SIC.

On January 13, 2024, a three-member SC bench upheld the Election Commission of Pakistan's (ECP) December 22, 2023 order declaring the PTI's intra-party polls null and void.

Later, the PTI candidates had to contest the February 8, 2024 general elections as independents.

Eighty such independent candidates reached the National Assembly and later joined the SIC in an apparent bid to claim reserved seats for women and minorities. The ECP, however, refused to allocate the seats to the party, a decision that the SIC challenged in the Supreme Court.

On July 12, 2024, a full bench of the apex court through a majority of 8 to 5 resurrected the PTI as a parliamentary party, noting that 39 of the lawmakers who had submitted certificates of their affiliation with the PTI along with their nomination papers were already PTI lawmakers.

The SC ruled that the remaining 41 lawmakers who had not submitted the affiliation certificates at the time of nomination papers' submission could do that now within a period of 15 days.

The ruling coalition later filed a review petition against the SC ruling, which the CB took up in May.

During the hearing, Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail observed that the SC verdict came on January 13, whereas nomination papers were submitted in December, and many candidates had then declared their independent status.

Siddiqi responded that the ECP had withdrawn PTI's symbol on December 22, 2023. He said all 11 judges of the SC larger bench had stated the ECP's decision to declare PTI members as independents was illegal. Justice Mandokhail remarked that the agreement among the 11 judges applied only to those members who had submitted nomination papers and party tickets from the PTI.

"Only 14 PTI candidates had submitted the party certificate but we assumed that perhaps others had also submitted it and it may have been misplaced. That was why we considered 39 members."

The court adjourned the hearing until today. Siddiqi will resume his arguments on behalf of the SIC.