Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar said that the Supreme Court’s verdict on the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) reserved seats does not pose any threat to the incumbent coalition government.
“We still have a majority of 209 members and the verdict has not been completed yet,” said the minister after the top court ruled that the PTI was eligible for the allocation of reserved seats.
Tarar said that he was not sure whether the government would file a review petition challenging the verdict or not as it was the prerogative of the federal cabinet, not a minister.
The development comes after the SC announced an 8-5 majority verdict, nullifying the Peshawar High Court’s (PHC) order wherein it had upheld the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) decision denying the reserved seats to the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC).
The verdict was supported by Justices Mansoor Ali Shah, Athar Minallah, Shahid Waheed, Muneeb Akhtar, Muhammad Ali Mazhar Ayesha Malik, Syed Hassan Azhar Rizvi, and Irfan Saadat Khan.
The PTI candidates did not contest the polls on a single election symbol, forcing them to join hands with the SIC, but that could not get them the reserved seats as the ECP ruled against them.
In its decision today, the court declared that the lack or denial of an election symbol does not in any manner affect the Constitutional or legal rights of a political party to participate in an election, whether general or by, and to field candidates and that the commission is under a Constitutional duty to apply all statutory provisions accordingly.
“PTI was and is a political party, which secured general seats in the national and provincial assemblies in the general elections of 2024,” read the verdict.
The court ordered the Imran Khan-founded party to present a list of names of the candidates eligible for the reserved seats within 15 days of this decision. “Reserved seats in Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Sindh should be given to PTI,” it said.
Terming the verdict “interesting”, Tarar, while speaking during a press conference, said the SIC had claimed the reserved seats and not the PTI.
“There was no mention of PTI in the PHC verdict and the law says that no judgement can be given against someone without hearing them,” said Tarar.
He pointed out that the majority of the parties were not present in the court yet the verdict was announced against them.
Tarar further said that 80 candidates had never claimed in the SC that they belonged to the PTI and why they had to join the SIC. “These 80 candidates said that they belonged to SIC,” he said.
“There are constitutional and legal flaws in this verdict that will remain under discussion,” said the law minister.
