ISLAMABAD: The 13-judge constitutional bench of the Supreme Court will take up for hearing on May 6, a set of petitions seeking to revisit the judgement through which the top court had held that majority of the reserved seats belongs to the PTI.

Headed by Justice Aminuddin Khan, the constitutional bench will comprise Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail, Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar, Justice Ayesha A. Malik, Justice Syed Hasan Azhar Rizvi, Justice Musarrat Hilali, Justice Naeem Akhter Afghan, Justice Aqeel Ahmed Abbasi, Justice Shahid Bilal Hassan, Justice Muhammad Hashim Khan Kakar, Justice Salahuddin Panhwar, Justice Aamer Farooq and Justice Ali Baqar Najafi.

The review petitions have been filed by PML-N, PPP and the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and the PTI. In its July 12 short order, the SC explained that 41 of total 80 MNAs were and are the returned candidates of the PTI and thus members of PTI’s Parliamentary Party in the National Assembly for all constitutional and legal purposes.

On Sept 14, the day when the government was supposed to lay the constitutional package in both Houses of Parliament, the Supreme Court though a clarification had reprimanded the ECP for not implementing its July 12 judgement in the reserved seats case.

Later on Oct 18, in yet another clarification, senior puisine judge Justice Mansoor Ali Shah reiterated that the effect of the amendment made in the Elections Act 2017 through the Elections (2nd Amendment) Act, 2024 could not undo the July 12 ruling in the reserved seats case.

The ECP in its application submitted that the July 12 short order was based on the law that has since been altered by the amendments made to Sections 66 and 104 of the Elections Act, 2017 (elections act) and a new Section, namely 104-A, has also been inserted with retrospective effect from the date of the commencement of the elections act.

It requested the SC to revisit its judgment in the reserved seat case that granted a relief to the PTI when neither it was a political party, nor persons claiming to be its candidates had ever approached the ECP, PHC or the SC to claim the reserved seats.

Published in Dawn, May 1st, 2025