Pak court rejects Imran Khan-backed Sunni Ittehad Council’s plea on reserved seats

Peshawar, Mar 14 (PTI) A top Pakistani court on Thursday rejected a petition filed by the Sunni Ittehad Council, serving as a platform for jailed former prime minister Imran Khan’s party lawmakers, to allot them the reserved women and minority seats in the national and provincial assemblies.

The Peshawar High Court resumed the hearing in the case being conducted by a five-member bench led by Chief Justice Mohammad Ibrahim Khan and comprising Justice Ijaz Anwar, Justice Ishtiaq Ibrahim, Justice Shakeel Ahmad and Justice Arshad Ali.

The petition is unanimously rejected, the court said.

A day ago, Attorney General for Pakistan Mansoor Usman Awan and the counsels for the Pakistan Peoples Party and the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) had completed their arguments.

AGP Awan had argued that a political party could get reserved seats only if it won a general one. ECP lawyer Sikander Basheer Momand had supported his arguments, stating that the Sunni Ittehad Council was a political party but not a parliamentary one.

The electoral body, on March 4, had accepted applications of the opposing parties and decided that the seats in the National Assembly and provincial assemblies would not remain vacant and would be allocated by a proportional representation process of political parties on the basis of seats won by political parties.

Though more than 90 independent candidates backed by Khan’s PTI won the maximum number of seats in the National Assembly, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) led by former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) led by former foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto struck a post-poll deal and formed a coalition government last week.