Apex court to announce verdict on a case related to denial of reserved seats to PTI-backed SIC tomorrow 


ISLAMABAD, July 11 (SABAH): The Supreme Court  of Pakistan will announce its much-awaited verdict tomorrow (Friday) on a case related to the denial of reserved seats to the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)-backed Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC), according to a cause list issued on Thursday. The court will issue the verdict on 10 petitions filed by Sunni Ittehad Council and others. Election Commission of Pakistan and other have been made party in the applications.  
The development came after the apex court’s full bench held its second round of consultation on the reserved seats case verdict for the second consecutive day on Thursday. 
A special session of the country’s top court’s 13-member full bench was held under the chair of Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Justice Qazi Faez Isa, the sources of a private TV channel said, adding all the judges of the bench attended the session.
The cause list issued following the meeting said a regular bench of three SC judges led by CJP Qazi Faez Isa will announce the short ruling at 9:00 AM on Friday (July 12) on the SIC plea challenging the Peshawar High Court (PHC) decision upholding the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) move to deny the PTI-backed lawmakers reserved seats in the assemblies. 
The apex court reserved the verdict on the SIC’s appeals on Tuesday after conducting nine hearings on the SIC’s appeals with all parties including the federal government and the ECP presented their arguments against the SIC’s plea. 
The full bench also comprises Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah, Justice Munib Akhtar, Justice Yahya Khan Afridi, Justice Amin-ud-Din Khan, Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail, Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar, Justice Ayesha A. Malik, Justice Athar Minallah, Justice Syed Hassan Azhar Rizvi, Justice Shahid Waheed, Justice Irfan Saadat Khan and Justice Naeem Akhtar Afghan.
The reserved seats’ issue first emerged after over 80 PTI-backed independent candidates emerged victorious in the February 8 elections and subsequently joined the SIC in a bid to claim seats reserved for minorities and women.
However, the Imran Khan-founded party suffered a setback after the ECP, citing the party’s failure to submit its list of candidates, denied allocating the reserved seats to the SIC.
The party then approached the PHC which upheld the electoral body’s decision on the matter.
Subsequently, the SIC moved the apex court seeking to set aside the PHC verdict and the allocation of 67 women and 11 minority seats in the assemblies.
The allocation of reserved seats holds significance as the PTI-backed independent candidates, who make up the majority of the opposition benches, lost as many as 77 reserved seats in NA and provincial assemblies due to the PHC’s verdict.
It is also to be noted that the PHC verdict allowing the allocation of reserved seats to the ruling coalition comprising the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and others, led to them securing a two-thirds majority in the National Assembly.
The move propelled the PML-N’s number in the lower house of parliament to 123, the PPP to 73, whereas the PTI-backed SIC number stood at 82.
A three-member SC bench comprising Justice Mansoor, Justice Minallah and Justice Mazhar, took up the SIC’s plea on June 6 and suspended PHC’s verdict as well as the ECP’s decision on the said issue.
Following the SC’s decision to suspend the ECP order, the coalition lost its two-thirds majority in the lower house.
The SIC’s plea, however, has been opposed by both the federal government and the electoral body.
In its submission to the court via Attorney General of Pakistan (AGP) Mansoor Usman Awan, the government has urged the apex court to reject the SIC’s plea stressing that the reserved seats for minorities and women could be given to a political party which contested the polls and won at least one seat besides providing a list of candidates based on the total number of seats it won as per the law.
Meanwhile, the ECP has also adopted a somewhat similar argument contending that the party is not eligible to get reserved seats as it did not submit the list of candidates before the January 24, 2024 deadline.