High court dismisses SIC’s plea for reserved seats
Judges say reserved seats are allocated to political parties who win general seats in an election.
PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court on Thursday dismissed a petition of Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) seeking allotment of women and minorities’ reserved seats in the provincial assembly to the party.
A larger bench of the court headed by Justice Ishtiaq Ibrahim heard the petition during which the five judges were pleaded by SIC’s lawyer Barrister Ali Zafar to turn down the Election Commission’s decision not to allocate the reserved seats to the party, consisting of independent members belonging to the PTI.
After hearing the arguments of Barrister Zafar and ECP counsel Sikendar Bashir Memon, the court remarked that the reserved seats are allocated to those political parties who have won seats in the general elections. It said as SIC has not won any single seat, how it could be given the reserved seats. The court then dismissed the petition.
On March 6, two judges of the high court had barred the oath-taking of lawmakers selected on reserved seats. The next day, a five-member larger bench extended the bar until March 13.
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