ISLAMABAD According to sources who spoke to Geo News on Friday, the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) has filed a challenge contesting the Peshawar High Court’s (PHC) decision to deny the party reserved seats for women and minorities. A 13-member full-court bench of the Supreme Court has been appointed to hear the case.
According to the sources, Qazi Faez Isa, the Chief Justice of Pakistan, would preside over the bench, which will include all of the judges available except for Justice Musarrat Hilali. Justice Hilali’s cardiac condition prevents him from serving on the bench.
The hearing in this case is scheduled for June 3.
The PHC ruling was stayed earlier this month and the case was referred to a three-judge SC bench led by Justice Mansoor Ali Shah, which also included Justices Muhammad Ali Mazhar and Athar Minallah.
The court noted in its written order that the issues surrounding the distribution of reserved seats in the national and provincial assemblies bear on the fundamental constitutional tenet of parliamentary democracy, which is that the assemblies’ makeup truly reflects the will of the people.
The democratic mandate requires that reserved seats be distributed in a way that both preserves the electoral process’s ideals of fairness and openness and improves the electorate’s representation in the assemblies. It declared and granted leave to appeal that “it is crucial to prioritize the integrity of the elections so that the Parliament remains a true reflection of the will of the people.”
After the PHC denied SIC’s reserved rights plea, the case was ultimately heard by the Supreme Court.
