The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Tuesday said the Supreme Court ruling on allotting reserved seats to political parties will be implemented in letter and spirit.
Sources in the Election Commission said the ECP will take action as per directions issued to the electoral body by the apex court. They further said that matter concerning the additional seats was pending.
They said a decision was yet to be taken regarding Senate elections in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The sources further said that Senate election in the KP province could only be possible till logical conclusion of case relating to reserved seats.
The Supreme Court on Monday, while admitting the Sunni Ittehad Council’s appeal for hearing, had suspended the Peshawar High Court (PHC) and the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) decision to give SIC’s reserved seats to other parties.
As the proceedings resumed, Justice Mansoor Ali Shah remarked that mandate given by the people should be properly represented in parliament. Counsel for the ECP said, “Let me tell you what the Election Commission has actually done. The reserved seats were distributed only once. These were not re-distributed.”
Justice Shah remarked that court was not concerned with what the Election Commission had done, but what the Constitution says. “Isn’t it against the principle of proportionality to give more seats to other parties?,” asked Justice Shah. Justice Athar Minallah observed that seats were given to other parties out of proportion. He observed that a party could contest elections as a political party even after losing the electoral symbol.
