ECP to implement Supreme Court's order on reserved seats

• ECP says decision taken after holding deliberation over SC order. 
• ECP's legal team directed to "identify" obstacles in implementation.
• Polls body strongly condemns undue criticism of CEC, ECP members.

ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has decided to implement the Supreme Court's order on allotting reserved seats to the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).

In a major legal victory for the PTI and a setback for the rulers, the apex court had on July 12 ruled that PTI was and is a political party that won general seats in the national and provincial assemblies in the February 8 elections, thus, is entitled to reserved seats.

The court, by a majority of 8, set aside the Peshawar High Court's judgement of March 25 and declared the ECP order of March 1 to be ultra vires the Constitution, without lawful authority and of no legal effect.

Justice Mansoor Ali Shah of the SC's full bench announced the 8-5 majority verdict, nullifying the PHC's order wherein it had upheld the ECP's decision denying the reserved seats to the PTI-backed SIC.

In a statement, the ECP said the decision was taken after the electoral body held two meeting on Thursday and Friday to deliberate on the reserved seats case verdict.

The statement further said that directives have been issued to the ECP's legal team to immediately "identify" any obstacle in the implementation of the verdict so that the apex court could be approached for guidance.

"Moreover, the commission strongly condemned and rejected the undue criticism of the chief election commissioner and honourable members by a political party," the ECP's said without naming the Imran Khan-founded party.

"Demanding the resignation [of CEC and members] is ridiculous," it added while referring to the demand put forward by the PTI after a legal victory in the Supreme Court.

The commission further stated that it worked in line with the Constitution and laws while not succumbing to any type of pressure.

Moreover, the ECP stated that 39 candidates who had been declared as PTI MNAs had shown their affiliation with the embattled party in their nomination papers, while to be a candidate of any party, it is necessary to submit the party ticket and declaration to the returning officer (RO).

But in the case of the said MNAs, these documents were not submitted to the ROs; therefore the ROs couldn't declare them PTI candidates, it added.

Meanwhile, the 41 candidates who had been declared independents hadn't mentioned PTI in their nomination papers neither they disclosed their affiliation with the party nor submitted the ticket of any party.

"Therefore, the ROs allowed them to contest the election as independents. Later, these MNAs voluntarily joined the Sunni Etihad Council (SIC) within three days as required by law after winning the election," the statement read.

The party appealed the decision of the Election Commission and the PHC in the Supreme Court, but it was rejected.

It further added that the PTI was neither a petitioner in the case against the ECP in the apex court nor the PHC.

The ruling party, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, has filed a review petition in the apex court against the verdict, which came as an unexpected legal victory for the main opposition party. 

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