PPP files review petition on SC reserved seats order, joining PML-N

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Tuesday filed a review petition against the Supreme Court's July 12 verdict on reserved seats allotted to the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), days after the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) had also submitted a similar plea to the apex court.

Lawyer Farooq H Naek filed the petition on his party’s behalf, urging the top court to review its verdict regarding reserved seats of women and minorities.

In its appeal, the PPP objected to granting the reserved seats to the PTI, arguing that the former ruling party had not claimed any entitlement to them.

The PML-N had on July 15 filed a review petition in the SC against the same verdict. The review petition had asked a number of questions including whether the SIC should be granted the reserved seats.

The decision not only paved the way for the PTI's return to the parliament, which was kicked out of the February 8 polls owing to the Election Commission of Pakistan's (ECP) December 2023 ruling but has also increased the pressure on the coalition alliance by changing the composition of the National Assembly.

The 8-5 majority verdict declared that the lack or denial of an election symbol does not in any manner affect the constitutional or legal rights of a political party to participate in an election, whether general or by, and to field candidates and that the commission is under a constitutional duty to apply all statutory provisions accordingly.

The PPP has requested the SC to fix the hearing of the review petition at the earliest as “the order under review has given a strict timeline of 15 days” and if the order is implemented, the plea will become infructuous.

The political party stated that the SC verdict was silent on the main controversy in the reserved seats case which was whether the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) should be granted the reserved seats; whether the seats could be granted to a political party that had not submitted a party list within the prescribed time; if a political party whose candidates have not even filed nomination papers can be given reserved seats; if independents can even join a political party which did not win a single general seat in the parliament; if the seats can be left vacant or have to be distributed amongst the political parties contesting for the said seats and what is the “proportional representation system of political parties’ lists of candidates”.

Similar questions were raised by the PML-N as well in its review plea.

The PPP plea said the SC judgement contradicted the Constitution as it provided only three days to the returned candidates to decide which party to join, while the ruling has given 15 days that too from the date of the order.