On Tuesday, the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) filed a review petition challenging the Supreme Court’s July 12 decision on the allocation of reserved seats. This move comes a week after the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) submitted its own review petition against the same verdict.
The Supreme Court’s July 12 ruling declared that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) is eligible for the reserved seats for women and minorities, overturning prior decisions by the Peshawar High Court and the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP). The ruling was in response to appeals from the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC), supported by PTI, which argued that the ECP’s denial of these seats was unconstitutional. The SIC sought the allocation of 77 reserved seats that had been previously assigned to other parties within the ruling coalition.
The decision sparked significant backlash from the ruling coalition. Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz expressed her surprise and questioned the legitimacy of reinstating individuals she described as “criminals of the nation.”
PPP’s legal maneuver
The PPP, represented by Farooq H. Naek, is seeking to overturn the Supreme Court’s decision, which had annulled the rulings of the Peshawar High Court and the ECP. The review petition aims to challenge the court’s affirmation of PTI’s status as a legitimate party within the Parliament and provincial assemblies.
Upcoming review hearings
The Supreme Court’s Practice and Procedure Committee has scheduled the hearing of the review petitions for after the September holidays. However, Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa dissented from the majority decision to delay the hearings, advocating for the cancellation of the summer holidays to address the petitions promptly. He emphasised that the Constitution should take precedence over the convenience of judges, arguing that any delay in hearing the petitions would be unjust.