The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) on Tuesday joined the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) in seeking a review of the Supreme Court’s full court verdict granting reserved seats to the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).
Filed by Farooq H. Naek, the petition seeks to overturn the apex court’s verdict declaring the PTI eligible for reserved seats of women and minorities, on a petition filed by the Sunni Ittehad Council seeking the same. The PPP petition argues that the court granted the PTI the reserved seats despite it not being a party to the case or claiming any entitlement on them.
It notes that the independent candidates declared as members of the PTI by the majority verdict of the Supreme Court had already joined the SIC and there is no longer an “option” for them to join the PTI at this stage. Similarly, it notes that the Constitution only permits three days for independents to join any parliamentary party, while the court ruling has granted 15 days in clear contradiction to the Constitution.
Arguing that the short order is against the “settled principles of interpretation” of the Constitution, it states that by carving out a new procedure, the ruling “might” have entered the realm of “creating and not just interpreting” the Constitution. It further notes that the short order is entirely silent on the main controversy in the appeal of whether the SIC was eligible for reserved seats or not.
The PPP has requested the Supreme Court to fix the hearing of the review petition at the earliest as “the order under review has given a strict timeline of 15 days,” adding if the order is implemented, the plea would become infructuous.
The reserved seats ruling essentially allowed the PTI to re-emerge as a parliamentary party, putting pressure on the ruling coalition, which was denied a two-thirds majority, though continues to have sufficient numbers to remain in government. The 8-5 majority verdict declared that a denial of electoral symbol does not impact any political party’s right to participate in an election, and had stressed that the PTI remains a political party.