The allocation of reserved seats to Pakistan’s Sunni Ittehad Council may be in jeopardy after it was revealed that the right-wing party has not provided its list of members for the reserved seats, it emerged on Thursday.
The religious party of the Sunni Muslim sect came to prominence after the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party of former jailed prime minister Imran Khan asked its independently elected members to join SIC to claim its share in the 70 seats reserved for women and non-Muslims in the 266-member National Assembly. However, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has been refusing to allocate the reserved seats to the party, prompting the PTI to express outrage and protest at the maiden session of Parliament on Thursday.
Speaking on the floor of the Assembly, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) senior leader Khawaja Asif questioned how the PTI could demand reserved seats when the SIC had not submitted a list of its members on reserved seats before the ECP.
Legally, every party should provide before elections a list of members it wants to be elected on reserved seats.
Separately, ECP on Wednesday reserved its judgment on the petitions relating to the allotment of reserved seats to the SIC after hearing arguments from the parties. A five-member commission headed by Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sikandar Sultan Raja heard the petitions.
The News International reported that during the hearing, CEC Raja handed over a letter written to the ECP by the SIC to PTI lawyer Senator Barrister Ali Zafar and said they don’t want reserved seats and you are forcing it.
The CEC said the Council head wrote a letter to the ECP on February 26 and said they don’t have a list of reserved seats since no one contested the election from the SIC platform.
Barrister Ali Zafar expressed ignorance about the letter and said that the SIC did not inform the PTI about any such letter and asked the ECP to consider the extraordinary situation faced by the PTI and allot reserved seats to the SIC after independent members joined it.
Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) lawyer Farooq H Naek started his arguments and said that no SIC member won the general seat, and the Council did not submit any priority list to the ECP. Under Section 104 of the Elections Act, the new list could not be submitted after the expiry of the nomination papers date and the existing list could be changed.
He also maintained that if a name was deleted from the current list for reserved seats, the political party could give more names. The ECP could not issue a directive to ask the SIC to seek a priority list at this time. According to the formula given in Article 51 of the Constitution, seats were allotted. “If the stipulated time passes, then the list cannot be given,” Naek added.
PML-N lawyer Azam Nazeer Tarar said the SIC did not participate in the general elections. The ECP wrote a letter to all political parties about the implementation of election rules, but the Council replied that their party did not field any candidates.
Tarar said, “The Section 104 clearly states that whoever is participating in the elections, under Section 104, must have a priority list for reserved seats. If a political party has been rejected by the people, then how can independent members go and ask for reserved seats.” The ECP bench reserved its verdict on the petition after hearing the arguments of the parties.
