Supreme Court’s Detailed Verdict on Reserved Seats

On Monday, the Supreme Court’s Detailed Verdict on Reserved Seats its detailed judgment on the July 12 order in the reserved seats case, which declared the PTI as a parliamentary party.

Supreme Court’s Detailed Verdict on Reserved Seats

Supreme Court Issues Detailed Judgment on Reserved Seats Case

The 8-5 majority order had declared former Prime Minister Imran Khan's PTI eligible for reserved seats for women and minorities, a major setback for Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif's ruling coalition.

A 13-member bench headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faiz Isa heard the case, which included Justices Mansoor Ali Shah, Shahid Waheed, Ayesha Malik, Irfan Saeed, Athar Minallah, Munib Akhtar, Hasan Azhar Rizvi, and Muhammad Ali Mazhar.

Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah delivered the majority judgment, which was supported by seven other judges: Justice Munib Akhtar, Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar, Justice Ayesha A Malik, Athar Minallah, Syed Hasan Azhar Rizvi, Shahid Waheed, and Irfan Saeed Khan.

Despite the 8-5 split, all 13 judges had declared the PTI a parliamentary party as they had ruled that 39 out of the list of 80 MNAs belonged to the PTI, while 41 were given an opportunity to rejoin the party.

The 70-page judgment, released today and available on the Supreme Court's website, was authored by Justice Shah, who is set to become the next Chief Justice in October, succeeding the current CJP Isa.

The judgment stated: "When electoral authorities engage in acts such as unlawfully refusing to recognize a major political party and treating its nominated candidates as independent candidates, they not only compromise the rights of such candidates but also significantly violate the rights of their voters and undermine their own institutional justification."

According to the judgment, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) had submitted a list of 80 MNAs who had either submitted PTI party certificates (party tickets) or had declared their affiliation with the PTI in their nomination papers or statutory declarations/affidavits.

The judgment listed 39 MNAs who were "the returning and are the candidates whose seats have been secured by and are of the PTI", and for whom the ECP had shown "PTI" in one of the columns mentioned in the list.

The order stated: "In the present case, the illegal actions and omissions of the returning officers and the Commission, which have caused confusion and prejudice to the PTI, its candidates, and the voters who voted for the PTI, are numerous."