LHC calls for larger bench on SIC's plea seeking reserved seats

LAHORE: The Lahore High Court’s (LHC) single bench requested the Chief Justice to form a larger bench to hear a plea filed by the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) against the non-allocation of reserved seats in National and Provincial Assemblies, ARY News reported.

The bench comprising Justice Raheel Kamran Sheikh issued a written order on the plea filed by the SIC, a coalition of lawmakers backed by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).

The single bench requested Chief Justice Shahzad Ahmed Khan to form a larger bench to hear and decide the matter. SIC Chief Hamid Raza and Amina Liaquat approached the LHC against the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).

In the petition, the SIC maintained that the ECP’s distribution of reserved seats was ‘unconstitutional’ and asked the court to order the commission to assign seats in accordance with the party’s strength in the National and Punjab Assemblies.

The petitioners contended that the ECP had alloted other parties the reserved seats after declining to provide them to the SIC in an order that was made public on March 4, 2024. The SIC contended that the Election Act of 2017 and other sections of the Constitution were improperly read and applied by the ECP.

Earlier, the Peshawar High Court (PHC) dismissed petitions of the SIC over reserved seats in assemblies. A five-member bench of the high court gave a unanimous decision on the petition as Justice Ishtiaq Ibrahim read the reserved verdict.