CJP Isa, Justice Jamal issue dissenting note in reserved seats case

ISLAMABAD: Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faez Isa and Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail issued a dissenting note in the reserved seats case, maintaining that the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) is not entitled to the reserved seats, ARY News reported.

In a 17-page dissenting note, CJP Qazi Faez Isa and Jamal Khan Mandokhail maintained, “The Sunni Itehad Council did not contest the General Elections of the year 2024. SIC, which demands allocation of reserved seats on account of inclusion of independent parliamentarians in it, did not secure a single seat in the National Assembly or any of the Provincial Assemblies nor submitted a list of its candidates for seats reserved for women and non-Muslims. Thus, it is not entitled to any of the reserved seats in the National Assembly and in the Provincial Assemblies. The impugned judgment and the order dated 1 March 2024 of the Election Commission of Pakistan (“ECP”) to such extent is upheld.”

The dissenting note read that under Article 51(3) of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, 1973, the total number of seats in the National Assembly shall be 326, out of which 60 seats are reserved for women and 10 seats for non-Muslims.

“Such right of women and non-Muslims has been guaranteed by the Constitution. They shall be elected in accordance with the law through proportional representation system of political parties’ list of candidates on the basis of total number of general seats secured by each political party from the Province concerned in the National Assembly and the Provincial Assemblies, as provided by Article 51(6) (d) and (e) of the Constitution. Therefore, they cannot be deprived of this right of theirs by leaving these seats vacant, and all reserved seats must be filled in, as provided by Article 224(6) of the Constitution,” it added.

“The candidates who had submitted their nomination papers by 24 December 2023, which was the last date of submission of nomination papers, and had declared themselves either as independent candidates or had left blank the relevant column in the nomination papers/declaration and were elected shall be considered to be independents. SIC is a registered political party and every independent member of the National Assembly and of the Provincial Assemblies has a right to join it. All those who joined the SIC are presumed to have done so out of their own free will. None of them claimed to have joined SIC because of any misunderstanding of any judgment, the law, compulsion, coercion or undue influence and it is not for this Court to presume otherwise.”