The issue of specific seats of Sunni Union Council: Peshawar High Court’s decision suspended

Web Desk: The Supreme Court of Pakistan has suspended the decision of the Peshawar High Court on the issue of specific seats of the Sunni Ittehad Council.
A three-member bench headed by Justice Mansoor Ali Shah and comprising Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar and Justice Athar Minullah heard the appeal filed in the Supreme Court for the specific seats of the Sunni Unity Council.
At the beginning of the hearing, the federal government requested to constitute a larger bench.
On behalf of the federal government, Additional Attorney General Aamir Rehman said that only a larger bench can hear the appeals, but the court rejected the objection on the bench.
Objections were also raised on the bench by women members of assembly nominated for specific seats.
The lawyer women MLAs told the court that this is a case of interpretation of Article 51 of the Constitution, the case can be heard by a 5-member bench under the Practice and Procedure Act.
Justice Mansoor Ali Shah remarked that the present case is being heard in appeal under Article 185 of the Constitution, the present case was not filed under Article 184/3.
Justice Mansoor Ali Shah said that now a decision has to be taken on whether the appeals are admissible, once the admissibility is decided, then the larger bench will also look into the matter.
Along with this, advocate Faisal Siddiqui, the lawyer of the Sunni Ittehad Council, started the arguments.
Lawyer Faisal Siddiqui said that PTI’s independent winning MLAs joined the Sunni Etihad Council, upon which Justice Mansoor Ali Shah inquired that 7 candidates are still part of the National Assembly in independent status?
Justice Athar Manullah asked whether PTI is a registered political party.
Lawyer Faisal Siddiqui took the position that PTI is a registered political party, on which Justice Mansoor Ali Shah remarked that it is a registered political party only it did not participate in the election.
Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar inquired that independent members have to join a party in how many days? On which lawyer Faisal Siddiqui said that independent members of the National Assembly have to join a political party within three days.
Justice Athar Manullah inquired that if a political party does not have an election symbol, will its candidates lose the right to represent?
Faisal Siddiqui told the court that a political party can become a parliamentary party by participating in the elections, otherwise a political party may not participate in the elections and the members who won freely join the party.
Justice Mansoor Ali Shah asked that under what formula is the distribution of specific seats among political parties? Will the political party take specific seats according to the number of seats won or can it take more?
Faisal Siddiqui said that no political party can take reserved seats more than its proportion.
During the hearing, Justice Athar Minullah said that a political party can get specific seats in proportion to the number of seats won.
Justice Mansoor Ali Shah said that where it is written in the law that the remaining seats will be distributed among the same political parties, we have to protect the public mandate, the real problem is the public mandate.
Justice Athar Minullah inquired that where is it written in the law that a political party cannot contest an election if it does not receive an election symbol?
Lawyer Salman Akram Raja said that I had gone to the court with this question before the election, on which Justice Athar Manullah said that one thing is certain that the number of seats represented by the party will be given.
Justice Mansoor Ali Shah remarked that how is it possible that someone’s mandate is given to someone else?
Justice Athar Manullah said that it happened for the first time that a major political party was deprived of the electoral symbol.
Later, the Supreme Court summoned the Election Commission officials immediately along with the records and adjourned the hearing of the case till 11:30.
When the hearing resumed after a break, the Supreme Court of Pakistan suspended the decision of the Peshawar High Court.