The Supreme Court supported the electoral commission’s judgment during the hearing of the appeal about the Sunni Ittehad Council’s (SIC) reserved seats on Thursday. However, the court did not rule that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) should be barred from the polls.
It further stated that the Supreme Court has no intention of excluding the PTI from contesting.
The case over the SIC’s reserved seats was considered by the entire SC court, presided over by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faez Isa. The electoral commission’s and the party’s attorneys attended in court.
Sikander Bashir, an attorney for the election commission, stated during the hearing that Hamid Raza of the SIC had stated in his candidacy papers thathe was associated with the SIC and the PTI, but in the documents he said he was affiliated with the PTI-Nazariati.
Unrelated to the PTI, there is another political party called the PTI-Nazariati.
Attorney Sikander Bashir contended that Hamid Raza ran as an independent and was granted the tower emblem to represent him in the polls at his own request. Hamid Raza did not indicate in the Urdu documents that he intended to run as an independent, according to Justice Jamal Mandokhel.
Hamid Raza produced a certificate of affiliation with the PTI, but the ECP counsel questioned how he could claim to be an independent candidate when he had admitted to being a member of the PTI-Nazariati after taking an oath. The panel carried out Raza’s most recent request.
