Depriving a political party of symbol main reason behind series of legal mistakes: Justice Munib
Pakistan
CJP says PTI deprived its people of democratic right by not holding intra-party polls
ISLAMABAD (Dunya News) – Hearing the Sunni Ittehad Council's appeal for allotment of reserved seats, the Supreme Court on Tuesday observed that depriving a political party of election symbol became the root cause of a series of mistakes.
The proceedings were broadcast live on the SC’s website and its YouTube channel.
Advocate Faisal Siddiqui, representing SIC’s women candidates who were denied the reserved seats, resumed his arguments in the case.
The hearing was adjourned to 9:30am, with Justice Shah stating that the counsel for both sides would have two days to sum up their arguments in the case.
During the proceedings, Justice Munib Akhtar observed that the Supreme Court decision was announced just before allocation of election symbols to parties. He remarked that there were a series of legal mistakes which began from this point.
Chief Justice of Pakistan Qazi Faez Isa asked if the apex court had given ruling that the bat symbol would not be allotted to the PTI. PTI lawyer Faisal Siddiqui said, "No, the Supreme Court did not say so."
The CJP said court had not asked the PTI to not hold intra-party elections. Had the PTI conducted the intra-party elections, all the problems would have been solved, he observed.
Justice Athar Minallah said the PTI was continuously complaining it had not been provided a level playing field. The chief justice said the complaint was not before the court.
Justice Minallah said the Supreme Court was responsible for protection of basic rights of the people. "We will see how to protect the basic rights of the people," he added.
Justice Ayesha Malik said the election symbol reserved for a party could not be given to a candidate of any other party.
The chief justice remarked that after apex court ruling if the PTI candidates declared themselves independent and demanded bat symbol? He observed that the PTI deprived its people of democratic right by not holding intra-party polls. He remakred, "The ECP decisions are challenged everyday. You are not now independents."
In response to the SIC lawyer's argument that there wouldn't have been any problem if the apex court had explained its verdict on the bat symbol, the chief justice said the issue of reserved seats would simply not have existed if the PTI had conducted its intra-party polls.
"Why did you not ask for the bat as an independent candidate," the CJP asked Advocate Siddiqui. He said the party should've declared its candidates independents and should've then sought the bat symbol.
"You should've at least tried to secure the bat symbol. The SC would then have seen whether it was to be allotted to you or not," the CJP said.
"All independent candidates cannot ask for bat," the counsel replied, stressing that Salman Akram Raja had even requested the ECP to be declared a PTI candidate. However, he added, Raja's request was dismissed.
"Don't blame everything on the SC," the CJP clapped back. "Had the elections been held, they would've benefitted the PTI members themselves. "If you want to talk about democracy, then follow it to the letter," the CJP remarked.
"Start from the beginning, don't talk about the ECP and the establishment," he added.
Justice Muneeb remarked that a candidate who portrays himself as belonging to a party will be considered to be affiliated with it. Only those will be considered independent candidates who submit an affidavit that he is not affiliated with any political party, he said.
"How can the ECP's law declare PTI's candidates independents," Justice Munib noted.
Full Court
Last week, a full court had been formed to hear the case, except for the ailing Justice Musarrat Hilali.
A 13-member bench, headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Qazi Faez Isa and comprising Justices Syed Mansoor Ali Shah, Munib Akhtar, Yahya Afridi, Aminuddin Khan, Mandokhail, Muhammad Ali Mazhar, Ayesha Malik, Athar Minallah, Syed Hasan Azhar Rizvi, Shahid Waheed, Irfan Saadat Khan and Naeem Akhtar Afghan, resumed the hearing on Monday.
The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Fazl (JUI-F) opposed the Sunni Ittehad Council's (SIC) petition against the Peshawar High Court’s (PHC) verdict that denied it reserved seats for women and minorities.
Earlier in May, the apex court had suspended the Election Commission of Pakistan's (ECP) decision to allocate SIC's reserved seats to other parties.
Monday's Proceedings
SIC lawyer Faisal Siddiqui and Advocate General for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Shah Faisal appeared before the top court. SIC’s Siddiqui said there were two different petitions filed before the apex court while the advocate general said a contempt of court plea had been filed before the PHC against the provincial government.
The chief justice asked who were beneficiaries in the reserved seats case. Siddiqui said those who gained the extra seats were the beneficiaries. ‘There are 22 seats of the National Assembly and 55 of the provincial assembly,” Siddiqui replied when the CJP asked him about the total number of seats.
Justice Isa then asked Siddiqi about the party-wise breakdown of the additional seats allocated to them. The lawyer then also provided the court with details of such reserved seats in the provincial assemblies.
At this point, the CJP called the ECP counsel to clarify the number of additionally allocated reserved seats for women in the NA. Momand then told the court that the commission’s position was “23 seats” and was confirming the same.
Justice Mansoor Ali Shah had, during the proceedings, remarked that the mandate given by the people should be properly represented in parliament.
The court had sent the matter of reserved seats to the Judges Committee to decide whether the case would be heard by the same bench or a larger bench would be constituted.
All parties opposed SIC's plea
On the question of whether any beneficiary parties support the SIC, the counsel for PML-N, PPP, JUI-F and PTI-P came to the rostrum and opposed the SIC's plea.
Is SIC registered with ECP?
CJP Isa asked if the SIC was a political party registered with the ECP. Siddiqui replied that it was recognised by the ECP and there was no dispute on it.
Background
On March 4, the Election Commission of Pakistan had accepted applications of the opposition parties and decided that the seats in the National and provincial assemblies would not remain vacant and would be allocated by a proportional representation process on the basis of seats won by political parties.
The development resulted in PTI-backed SIC losing a total of 77 reserved seats - 23 National Assembly seats (20 women and 3 minorities), 25 Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly seats (21 women and 4 minorities), two Sindh Assembly seats (women) and 27 Punjab Assembly seats (24 women and 3 minority).
The Peshawar High Court had also rejected the petitions filed by the Sunni Ittehad Council for the reserved seats of women and minorities. The party had challenged the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) verdict of not allocating the reserved women and minority seats to the SIC.
