• CB’s ruling overturns SC’s July 12, 2024 majority judgement; restores Peshawar High Court’s original verdict
• Seven judges accept review petitions by ECP, PML-N et al; three judges ‘partially allow’ them
• 77 reserved seats in national and provincial assemblies will be distributed among other parties
• Ruling coalition can now comfortably achieve two-thirds majority in NA
ISLAMABAD: The Constitutional Bench (CB) on Friday overturned the Supreme Court’s earlier judgement in the reserved seats case — effectively taking away reserved seats from the PTI and handing them to their rival parties in the national and provincial legislatures.
The decision, handed down by a majority of seven judges, supersedes the July 12, 2024 majority judgement by eight judges, which had declared the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) eligible for reserved seats for women and non-Muslims in the assemblies.
“[B]y majority of seven namely Justice Amin-ud-Din Khan, Justice Musarrat Hilali, Justice Naeem Akhter Afghan, Justice Shahid Bilal Hassan, Justice Muhammad Hashim Khan Kakar, Justice Aamer Farooq and Justice Ali Baqar Najafi, all civil review petitions are allowed and the impugned majority judgment of July 12 is set aside, as a consequence thereof, Civil Appeal Nos. 333 of 2024 and 334 of 2024 filed by the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) are dismissed and the judgment rendered by the Peshawar High Court is restored,” announced Justice Aminuddin Khan, who was presiding over the 12-judge CB hearing the case.
Amir Wasim & Ziauddin
Through the March 25, 2024 order, the Peshawar High Court (PHC) had deprived the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) — the party joined by PTI-backed independents after the Feb 8, 2024 polls — of reserved seats.
On the date of the first hearing of this case, Justices Ayesha A. Malik and Aqeel Ahmed Abbasi had rejected outright the review petitions filed by the PML-N, Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and PPP.
Subsequently, their names were excluded from the strength of CB, even though they were considered part of the bench.
Meanwhile, Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail partly allowed the review petitions and maintained his original order of giving 39 seats to PTI, but reviewed the majority judegment to the extent of 41 seats.
In his July 12 dissenting order, Justice Mandokhail had declared PTI a parliamentary party consisting of 39 members, and thus entitled to reserved seats. Therefore, the ECP should recalculate and reallocate the reserved seats amongst the political parties, including PTI, he held.
