Reshaping the reserved

Friday's Supreme Court’s verdict denying the PTI its claim to reserved seats for women and minorities has expectedly triggered a fierce debate. On Friday, a 10-member constitutional bench headed by Justice Amin-ud-Din Khan set aside the top court’s own July 12, 2024 majority judgment and restored the earlier Peshawar High Court ruling. This means that the PTI-backed Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) will not receive the share of reserved seats that the former ruling party had sought — despite PTI-backed independents securing the largest number of seats in the February general elections. This is a massive political setback for the PTI, but hardly an unexpected one. The writing had been on the wall ever since the government swiftly passed the Election (Second Amendment) Act, 2024, which appeared tailor-made to override the July 12 judgment. The ECP had already refused to allocate reserved seats to the SIC on the grounds that it had not submitted a mandatory list of candidates before the polls. The verdict by the constitutional bench has now closed the door on the matter entirely.

According to legal experts, this case raises troubling questions about consistency, due process and the separation of powers. Several lawyers have noted that the July 12 verdict — which recognised PTI as a political party and eligible for reserved seats — may have had its flaws, but the abrupt reversal of a detailed Supreme Court judgment within a year points to a deeper malaise in the judicial system.