The Supreme Court’s Constitutional Bench on Friday accepted the review petitions against its 2024 ruling granting reserved seats for women and minorities to the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), declaring the party is not entitled to the same.
Announced by Justice Aminuddin Khan, the short order sets aside the July 12, 2024 majority ruling, dismisses the appeals filed by the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) and restores the Peshawar High Court (PHC)’s ruling that had initially declared the SIC—and by extension the PTI—ineligible for reserved seats for women and minorities. The order applies to all provincial assemblies and the National Assembly.
Of the bench, Justices Aminuddin Khan, Mussarat Hilali, Naeem Akhtar Afghan, Shahid Bilal Hassan, Hashim Khan Kakar, Aamir Farooq and Ali Baqar Najafi ruled in favor of the review petitions. “Whereas Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail, for reasons to be recorded later, the party allowed the review petitions and maintained its review petitions and maintained his original order with regard to 39 seats but reviewed the majority judgement to the extent of 41 seats,” read the order. It said Justices Mohammad Ali Mazhar and Syed Hasan Azhar Rizvi had allowed the review petitions on the condition that the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) examine and consider the nomination papers of all 80 PTI-backed returned candidates and determine their affiliation.
The Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) and the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP)—who filed review petitions alongside the ECP—stand to gain the most from the ruling. The Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (Fazl) would also gain, securing significant numbers in the National Assembly.
The original 8-5 majority ruling had nullified the PHC’s order, which had upheld the ECP’s decision to deny reserved seats to the SIC. The judges had ruled that 39 of 80 MNAs were the returned candidates of the PTI, and had granted the remainder 15 days to switch their allegiance from the SIC back to the PTI, allowing the party to gain the contested reserved seats.
The original ruling had rejected the appeals filed by the SIC, maintaining it cannot take reserved seats as per the Constitution. However, it had said, the PTI was eligible. It had directed the ECP to publish the list of reserved seats of the candidates on its website within seven days.
The issue stems from the victory of around 80 PTI-backed independent candidates for the Lower House of Parliament during the Feb. 8, 2024 general elections. To avail reserved seats, a majority of these candidates had joined the SIC. However, the SIC lacked any parliamentary presence prior to this surge in numbers, and had not submitted any list of reserved seats’ candidates, prompting the ECP to rule it was ineligible for them.
The ECP had then ruled that as the seats could not remain vacant, they should be divided up among the other parties in Parliament. The SIC had appealed the ruling the PHC, which had backed the ECP. The ruling was then appealed in the Supreme Court.
Changing numbers
Following the order, the JUIF stands to gain 10 reserved seats in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Assembly, followed by seven for the PMLN, and one for the Awami National Party.
In the Punjab Assembly, the PMLN get 23; the PPP two; and the Istehkam-e-Pakistan Party (IPP) and the Pakistan Muslim League (Quaid) get one reserved seat each. In the Sindh Assembly, the PPP and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan stand to receive two and one seats, respectively.
The biggest change occurs in the National Assembly. Of the 22 vacant seats—19 for women and three for religious minorities—15 would be allocated to the PMLN, four to the PPP and three to the JUIF. This effectively grants the ruling coalition a two-thirds majority.
PTI condemns
Rejecting the ruling, the PTI had declared it “unjust and a misinterpretation of the Constitution.” Party Chairman Gohar Ali Khan said the party was “deeply disappointed,” adding the decision was unfair to the PTI. “The Constitution has been wrongly interpreted,” he claimed, maintaining the reserved seats rightly belonged to the PTI.
An official statement issued by the party declared the verdict the “darkest day in the country’s constitutional history.”