Justice Jamal Mandokhail opposes majority verdict on 41 reserved seats

ISLAMABAD: Supreme Court (SC) Justice Jamal Mandokhail has issued a decision allowing partial appeals against the majority verdict in SIC reserved seats case,.

Justice Mandokhail in his 12-page detailed judgment, upheld the rights of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf coalition for 41 seats but maintained his original decision regarding 39 reserved seats.

Regarding the 41 seats, Justice Mandokhail noted that the majority decision was incorrect and has converted it into a review.

SC clarified that it did not have the authority to declare the 41 candidates as independent. According to Justice Mandokhail, the majority verdict on these seats was not consistent with the Constitution or the factual record.

Justice Mandokhail observed that the court cannot change any candidate’s political affiliation, and the matter concerning the 41 candidates was not pending before the court.

He stated that the majority ruling on these candidates represented an overreach of authority.

Previously, Justice Mansoor Ali Shah’s majority decision had declared these 41 candidates as independent.

Earlier this year, the SC’s Constitutional Bench rejected Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI)-backed Sunni Ittehad Council’s plea, seeking reserved seats in the national and all provincial assemblies on the basis of its general seats.

The bench, headed by Justice Aminuddin Khan, set aside the apex court’s earlier judgment and restored the Peshawar High Court ruling that ruled that the reserved seats would be distributed among other parties.

This includes the restoration of eight women National Assembly members from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 11 women members on reserved seats Assembly from Punjab as well as three non-Muslim seats.