SIC petition : PHC restrains MPs-elect on reserved seats from taking oath

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Wednesday restrained the lawmakers belonging to other political parties, who were elected to the national and provincial assemblies on seats reserved for women and minorities and claimed by the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC), from taking oath.

Hearing arguments from the SIC counsels, a two-member bench of the PHC comprising Justice Ishtiaq Ibrahim and Justice Shakil Ahmad in a four-page order stayed the oath-taking of lawmakers elected to the national and provincial assemblies on reserved seats for women and minorities, which the SIC had wanted.

The court also sent the writ petition filed by SIC Chairman Hamid Raza against the non-allocation of reserved seats for women and non-Muslims to his party in the national, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab provincial assemblies to a larger bench.

The bench in its order raised six questions to the parties as to whether this court had the jurisdiction to hear the petition; if the PHC could be moved for reserved seats; whether the petitioner was lawfully entitled to get the reserved seats; if these seats would be left vacant or distributed among other political parties in proportion to their strength in assemblies and whether or not ECP had misinterpreted the various sections of the Election Act 2017?

The bench issued notices to the attorney general and advocate general to assist the court in the next proceedings. Qazi Muhammad Anwar, Shah Faisal Uthmankhel and Changiz Khan advocates represented the SIC in the petition.

Earlier, the counsels informed the bench that Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)-backed independent candidates had joined the SIC to meet the constitutional obligations after a landslide victory in the February 8 general elections. However, they said that the party had not been given the opportunity to claim its share in the seats reserved for women and minorities in the national and provincial assemblies.