Islamabad: Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faez Isa on Tuesday said that all issues would have been resolved if the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s intra-party polls were held.
A full court 13-member bench conducted a hearing on the Sunni Ittehad Council's petition, which is an ally of the PTI, against the denial of reserved (women and minorities) seats.
The bench, headed by CJP Isa, comprises Justices Syed Mansoor Ali Shah, Munib Akhtar, Yahya Afridi, Aminuddin Khan, Jamal Khan Mandokhail, Muhammad Ali Mazhar, Ayesha Malik, Athar Minallah, Syed Hasan Azhar Rizvi, Shahid Waheed, Irfan Saadat Khan and Naeem Akhtar Afghan.
During Monday’s hearing, Justice Mandokhail remarked that the public did not vote for an independent candidate but rather the candidates being supported by a political party. “This was the people’s right; the people voted for the PTI,” he added.
Earlier this month, a three-member SC bench headed by Justice Mansoor Ali Shah, and including Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar and Justice Athar Minallah, suspended the PHC verdict and referred the matter to the judges’ committee for the formation of a larger bench.
In its written order, the court stated that the questions of allocation of reserved seats in the National and provincial assemblies touch upon the foundational constitutional concept of parliamentary democracy that the voice of the electorate is truly reflected in the composition of the assemblies.
In March, a five-member larger bench of the PHC led by Justice Ishtiaq Ibrahim and including Justices Ijaz Anwar, S M Attique Shah, Shakeel Ahmed and Syed Arshad Ali rejected the SIC plea challenging the denial of reserved seats.
Earlier, the ECP rejected the SIC plea seeking the allocation of reserved seats.
The ECP, in a 4-1 verdict, said the SIC is not entitled to claim quota for reserved seats due to having “non curable legal defects and violation of a mandatory provision of submission of party list for reserved seats which is the requirement of law”.
“The seats in the National Assembly shall not remain vacant and will be allotted by proportional representation process of political parties on the basis of seats won by political parties,” the order said.
PTI-backed lawmakers after winning elections joined the SIC.