Supreme Court Overturns PHC’s Ruling On SIC’s Seats

On Monday, the Supreme Court of Pakistan suspended the decision made by the Peshawar High Court regarding reserved seats, after accepting a plea filed by the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) against the high court’s ruling. A three-member bench of the apex court, consisting of Justice Mansoor Ali Shah, Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar, and Justice Athar Minallah, heard the SIC’s appeal against the verdict of the Peshawar High Court.

The Sunni Ittehad Council, which now houses lawmakers-elect from the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), lodged an appeal against the decision of the PHC, which was subsequently reviewed by the Supreme Court’s three-member bench.

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Earlier, the Election Commission of Pakistan had determined that the SIC was ineligible for reserved seats due to legal deficiencies, resulting in a redistribution of seats among other political parties. The PTI contested this decision as unconstitutional. In response, the SIC filed a petition with the Supreme Court to challenge the judgment of the Peshawar High Court.

Following the polls on February 8, many candidates from Imran Khan’s PTI party joined the Sunni Ittehad Council to secure the maximum number of reserved seats in Parliament, as the top court had previously revoked PTI’s electoral symbol ‘bat’ due to issues related to intra-party elections.