LAHORE: A Lahore High Court single bench on Monday recommended to the chief justice to constitute a larger bench to hear petitions filed by Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) and others against the denial of reserved seats to them in the assemblies.

At the outset of the hearing, a law officer for the Punjab government told the court that the reply was almost ready, but needed to be signed by the Advocate General of Punjab, who was busy before the Supreme Court.

The law officer for the federation sought two weeks’ time to submit the reply.

Justice Raheel Kamran Sheikh, however, noted that a reasonable time has already been granted in the case as a notice was issued to the attorney general on March 8.

The judge directed the federal government to file a reply to the petition of the SIC and the connected petitions positively before the next date of hearing.

Judge allows request of early hearing on the matter of reserved seats

A counsel for SIC contended that similar petitions filed before high courts of Sindh and Peshawar were heard by larger benches and, therefore, the petitions filed with the Lahore High Court should also be heard by a larger bench.

Justice Sheikh found the petitioner’s counsel request tenable keeping in view the questions of public importance in relation to interpretation of the constitutional provisions as well as vires of section 104 of the Elections Act, 2017, involved in the matter.

The judge directed the registrar’s office to place the petitions before the chief justice for the constitution of an appropriate larger bench to decide the same.

The judge also allowed a request of the petitioners’ counsel for fixation of the matter on an early date.

The petition, filed by SIC Chairman Sahibzada Hamid Raza, contended that the ECP misconstrued and misapplied the provisions of Articles 51 and 106 of the Constitution, as well as Section 104 of the Elections Act, 2017.

It said that according to the Cons­titution, the entire scheme of reser­ved seats did not envisage the allocation of any seat to a political party over and above its due share proportionate to the number of seats it wins, including the independents having joined that party within three days of the notification.

It said the entire emphasis of the ECP was on the election schedule and date fixed for submitting the priority list for reserved seats.

The petition argued that the SIC was a duly enlisted political party and it had been allocated an electoral symbol. It stated that PTI-ba­ck­­­ed independent candidates have joi­ned the SIC and now become its me­­mbers. Therefore, the petition said, the SIC was entitled to reser­ved se­­ats equal to the number of in­­dependent candidates who joined it.

The petitioner asked the court to set aside the ECP’s decision and order it to allocate reserved seats to SIC based on its strength in the National Assembly from Punjab and the provincial assembly.

Published in Dawn, March 26th, 2024