PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Thursday, after reserving its verdict on the plea submitted by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)-backed Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) regarding reserved seats, declared “unanimously rejected” the petitions filed by the party.
SIC’s plea contested the decision of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to withhold the allocation of reserved seats to the party.
A five-member bench headed by Chief Justice Mohammad Ibrahim Khan, with Justices Ijaz Anwar, Ishtiaq Ibrahim, Shakeel Ahmad, and Arshad Ali, presided over the hearing of the petition.
During the proceedings, SIC’s lawyer, Barrister Ali Zafar, argued that the Constitution does not specify the timeline for submitting a list of names for reserved seats to the ECP.
The barrister emphasized that there is no explicit prohibition on resubmitting the list and that the ECP could have issued a second schedule, similar to the practice in general elections.
Justice Anwar remarked, “According to the law, those participating in elections will receive seats.”
The court further queried Barrister Zafar about any explicit prohibition on issuing a second schedule.
“The law does not restrict the Election Commission from issuing another schedule,” responded the lawyer.
(Islamabad51_Newsdesk)
