ECP submits reply in reserved seats case
Says PTI was never a party to the case before apex court
ISLAMABAD:
The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has submitted its written statement to the constitutional bench (CB) of the Supreme Court hearing review petitions in the reserved seats case, stating that the PTI was never a party to the case before the SC.
On January 13, 2024, a three-member SC bench upheld the ECP’s December 22, 2023 order declaring the PTI’s intra-party polls null and void.
As a consequence of the SC verdict and its “misinterpretation” by the ECP, 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 Sunni Ittehad Council (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 government later filed review petitions against the ruling and now a CB is hearing the case.
