ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: The Supreme Court of Pakistan has issued a 70-page detailed verdict on the July 12, 2024 order in the Reserved Seats Case, which had declared the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) a Parliamentary Party and eligible for seats reserved for women and minorities.
The detailed judgment, written by Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah, also annulled a previous ruling by the Peshawar High Court (PHC), affirming that the reserved seats should be allocated to Imran Khan’s PTI.
The majority verdict was supported by other than Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah; Justice Munib Akhtar, Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar, Justice Ayesha A Malik, Justice Athar Minallah, Justice Syed Hasan Azhar Rizvi, Justice Shahid Waheed, and Justice Irfan Saadat Khan.
The Reserved Seats Case had been heard by a 13-member bench of the Apex Court led by the Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faez Isa.
In the short order, all 13 judges had declared the PTI a Parliamentary Party as they ruled that out of a list of 80 Members of Natoinal Assembly (MNAs), 39 belonged to the PTI while 41 were given the chance to resubmit their party affiliation.
The 70-page judgement released today, available on the Supreme Court’s website, states: “When election authorities engage in actions […] such as unlawfully denying the recognition of a major political party and treating its nominated candidates as independents, they not only compromise the rights of these candidates but also significantly infringe upon the rights of the electorate and corrode their own institutional legitimacy.”
“The importance of free and fair elections in a democracy cannot be overstated. The judiciary’s role in ensuring electoral integrity and upholding the will of the people is essential for sustaining public trust in the democratic process,” the order read.
The Supreme Court asserted that the “court’s power to do ‘complete justice’ is a critical tool in preventing democratic backsliding and protecting democracy effectively”.
The eight-judge order also expressed “some doubts about whether the Commission has the power to reject the certificate of intra-party elections submitted by a political party under Section 209, and whether the Commission exercised its discretion under Section 215(5) justly, fairly and reasonably in PTI’s case, adding “fundamental right of citizens to vote for the political party of their choice was at stake”.
“Similarly, we have certain reservations about how the matter of intraparty elections — a matter of internal governance of party — can trump the fundamental rights of citizens to vote and of political parties to effectively participate in and contest elections through obtaining a common symbol for their candidates, guaranteed under Articles 17(2) and 19 of the Constitution.
“However, since these questions are sub judice in the review petition filed by PTI against this Court’s judgment dated 13 January 2024, we abstain from examining and expressing our definitive view on them,” the verdict said, referring to the SC ruling denying the PTI its party symbol.
The verdict stated that Justice Mazhar wished to “make clear that nothing in this paragraph is intended to or will impact upon the hearing of the review petition”.
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