ISLAMABAD, SEP 19 (DNA) : Days after the Supreme Court issued clarification on the reserved seats verdict, National Assembly Speaker Ayaz Sadiq said that the apex court’s July 12 ruling is now “incapable of implementation” after the amendments to Election Act 2017.
In what it called a major victory for Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), a 13-member full bench of the top court on July 12 ruled that the Imran Khan-founded party was eligible for the allocation of reserved seats for women and non-Muslims in the national and provincial assemblies.
Justice Mansoor Ali Shah announced the 8-5 majority verdict, nullifying the Peshawar High Court’s (PHC) order wherein it had upheld the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) decision denying the reserved seats to the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC)
The PTI candidates contested the Feb 8 general elections as independents after the top court upheld the ECP decision to deprive the opposition party of its iconic electoral symbol — bat — over “unlawful” intra-party polls.
The decision forced the PTI-backed winning candidates to join the SIC in a bid to claim reserved seats. However, the ECP denied the reserved to the SIC over its failure to submit list of candidates within the stipulated time.
The NA Speaker, in its letter to the electoral watchdog, noted that the Supreme Court had directed the election commission to allow independent returned candidates to join another political party months after already joining a political party as a result of the General Elections 2024. “In effect
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