Only a party that wins in general election deserving of reserved seats, AGP Awan tells PHC – Pakistan

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As the Peshawar High Court resumed hearing the Sunni Ittehad Council’s petition pertaining to the allocation of reserved seats, Attorney General for Pakistan Mansoor Usman Awan said a political party could get reserved seats only if it won a general one.

The SIC — joined by PTI-backed independents who won the elections sans their electoral symbol — has challenged the Election Commission of Pakistan’s decision to reject the party allocation of reserved women and minority seats.

In a 4-1 verdict earlier this month, the electoral watchdog ruled that the SIC was not entitled to claim quota for reserved seats “due to having non curable legal defects and violation of a mandatory provision of submission of party list for reserved seats which is the requirement of law”.

The commission had also decided to distribute the seats among other parliamentary parties, with the PML-N and the PPP becoming major beneficiaries. Meanwhile, the verdict was rejected by the PTI as unconstitutional.

On March 6, a two-member bench of the PHC had barred the oath-taking of lawmakers allotted the reserved seats. It issued a pre-admission to the ECP and all the respondents in the case, listing six questions that needed to be determined.

The next day, a five-member larger bench extended the bar until March 13 (today).

Today, the bench — led by Justice Ishtiaq Ibrahim and including Justices Ijaz Anwar, S.M. Attique Shah, Shakeel Ahmed and Syed Arshad Ali — resumed hearing the case.

Qazi Anwar appeared as the counsel for the SIC while Farooq H. Naek was the lawyer for the PPP — a respondent in the case. PPP leaders Faisal Karim Kundi and Nayyer Bukhari also reached the PHC while Azam Swati appeared from the PTI’s side.

The PHC initially rejected Anwar’s request to adjourn the hearing till tomorrow. After the PPP and ECP counsels as well as the AGP had presented their arguments, the court sought the same from the SIC lawyer.

However, Anwar said he could present his arguments if given time till tomorrow, at which the court adjourned the hearing till 9am on Thursday (tomorrow).

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