PESHAWAR: The Supreme Court on Monday suspended the Peshawar High Court’s (PHC) verdict denying the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) the new home for PTI lawmakers-elect reserved seats for women and minorities.

The development came as a three-member bench headed by Justice Mansoor Ali Shah and including Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar and Justice Athar Minallah took up an SIC appeal against the PHC order.

The Supreme Court on Monday took up a petition filed by the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) — the new home for PTI lawmakers-elect — against the denial of reserved seats for women and minorities.

The SIC had earlier been joined by PTI-backed independent candidates after they won the Feb 8 elections as their party had been deprived of its electoral symbol ‘bat’.

In a 4-1 verdict in March, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) had ruled that the SIC was not entitled to claim quota for reserved seats “due to having non curable legal defects and violation of a mandatory provision of submission of party list for reserved seats”.

The commission had also decided to distribute the seats among other parliamentary parties, with the PML-N and the PPP becoming major beneficiaries with 16 and five additional seats while the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam Fazl was given four. Meanwhile, the verdict was rejected by the PTI as unconstitutional.

Later the same month, while ruling on an SIC plea, the PHC had dismissed an SIC plea challenging the ECP decision and denied it reserved seats.

In April, the SIC filed a petition before the SC moved by party chief Sahibzada Hamid Raza seeking to set aside the PHC judgment.

Lawyer Faisal Siddiqi appeared before the court today as the SIC counsel, while Attorney General of Pakistan (AGP) Mansoor Usman Awan and an ECP official were also summoned during the hearing.

Accepting the SIC appeal for hearing, the apex court clarified that the PHC order upholding the ECP decision was suspended to the extent of the remaining reserved seats given to other parties.

According to the written order a questions regarding allocation of reserved seats touched upon the “foundational constitutional concept of a parliamentary democracy that the voice of the electorate is truly reflected in the composition of the assemblies”.

It added that a democratic mandate necessitated that the allocation of reserved seats enhanced the representativeness of the electorate in the assemblies and upheld the principles of fairness and transparency in the electoral process.

“It is paramount to prioritise the integrity of the elections so that the Parliament remains a true reflection of the will of the people.”

Thus, it said leave was being granted to consider the questions raised by the parties and said the appeals would be heard on June 6. It added that both sides were free to file additional documents.

The order said that notices be issued to the advocate general of Pakistan and the provincial advocate generals.

Suspending the PHC and ECP verdicts, the order said it applied only to the reserved seats allocated over and above the initially allocated reserved seats to the political parties.

“Since the questions under consideration require constitutional interpretation, the matter be placed before the committee under Section 4 of the Supreme Court (Practice and Procedure) Act, 2023 for constitution of a larger bench to hear the appeals,” the order reads.