'SC must overturn unconstitutional order'

ISLAMABAD:

Justice Aminuddin Khan has observed that the apex court is bound by the Constitution and it can revoke any unconstitutional verdict.

Justice Khan made this remark on Thursday while leading a 11-member constitutional bench (CB) of the Supreme Court that is hearing review petitions filed against the SC's July, 2024 verdict in the reserved seats case.

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 government had later filed review petitions against the verdict.

During the hearing on Thursday, Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar questioned whether the Constitution mandated that reserved seats must not remain vacant. The counsel for a petitioner Salman Akram Raja responded that the court had already declared that these seats cannot be left unfilled.

Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail asked which fundamental rights had been violated by not allocating reserved seats to the PTI, while Justice Naeem Akhtar Afghan queried whether the court could fill a political vacuum on its own initiative. The court will resume hearing of the case today.