PESHAWAR – The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Thursday rejected the Sunni Ittehad Council’s plea seeking reserved seats for women and minorities in the parliament.
The larger bench of the high court issued the unanimous verdict, which was pronounced by PHC Chief Justice Ishtiaq Ibrahim.
During the hearing, SIC lawyer Barrister Ali Zafar said: “Our candidates participated in the elections as independent candidates and were given different electoral symbols”.
For the first time in history, a large number of independent candidates emerged successful in the general elections, he said, adding that 86 independent candidates from National Assembly 90 from KP Assembly, 107 from Punjab, 9 from Sindh, and one member in Balochistan joined the Sunni Ittehad Council.
He pointed out that the SIC case is limited to the National Assembly and the KP Assembly. In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the Sunni Ittehad Council should be given 26 reserved seats, and eight seats in the National Assembl.
Barrister Zafar said, “Some political parties requested the Election Commission to give them these reserved seats, as if there were vacant land and anyone could come and claim it.”
He said, “PTI held intra-party elections, but the Election Commission hasn’t recognized them yet.”
At one point, Justice Ajaz Anwar said reserved seats, according to the law, are given to those political parties, which participate in the elections, adding that SIC did not contest the elections.
Additional Advocate General Mansoor Manzoor opposed the arguments and pleaded the high court to dispose of the SIC petition.
After hearing the arguments, the five-member bench unanimously rejected the Sunni Ittehad Council’s plea for reserved seats.
