PTI to move SC after being denied reserved seats

PESHAWAR, March 15: After a larger bench of the Peshawar High Court dismissed petitions of the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) challenging the ECPs decision to deny the party its share of seats reserved for women and non-Muslim lawmakers in the assemblies, PTI said it would take the matter to the Supreme Court.

The bench, which heard arguments for two consecutive days, pronounced a short order on Thursday and rejected the two petitions filed by the SIC - which was joined by the PTI lawmakers to claim their share of reserved seats.

The petitioner had sought directives from the court for the ECP to allocate the reserved seats to the SIC based on their strength in parliament.
It had also challenged Section 104 of the Elections Act which pertains to the mandatory submission of priority lists of candidates by a political party for the reserved seats.

On March 6, the court granted interim relief to the SIC and directed the speaker of the National Asse-mbly not to administer an oath to the eight MNAs-elect on reserved seats from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Keeping in view intricate legal questions in the matter, the PHC chief justice had constituted a special larger bench consisting of five senior most judges, including Justice Ishtiaq Ibrahim, Justice Ijaz Anwar, Justice Syed Muhammad Attique Shah, Justice Shakeel Ahmad and Justice Syed Arshad Ali.    —DAWN