The full bench of the Supreme Court has given a reserved verdict on the petition of the Tehreek-e-Insaaf-backed Sunni Ittehad Council for securing the reserved seats in the Parliament.
Justice Mansoor Ali Shah gave a majority verdict of 8 judges against 5 dissenting, according to which both the decisions of PTI to provide the reserved seats to the parties in the government coalition and the decision of the Peshawar High Court to maintain it were nullified.
In the reserved decision regarding reserved seats, it has been said that the reserved seats were the right of Tehreek-e-Insaf, PTI was and is a political party, according to the constitution no election symbol can be taken from any political party.
Declaring the Election Commission’s notification regarding specific seats null and void, the Supreme Court has said that withdrawing the election symbol cannot exclude a political party from the elections.
Justice Mansoor Ali Shah wrote the decision on behalf of the 13-member full court of the Supreme Court headed by Chief Justice Qazi Faiz Isa while Justice Hasan Azhar Rizvi, Justice Irfan Saadat, Justice Muneeb, Justice Mohammad Mazhar, Justice Ayesha Malik, Justice Mansoor Ali Shah. , Justice Atharmanullah and Justice Shahid Waheed are part of the majority judgment.
Chief Justice Qazi Faiz Isa, Justice Jamal Mandukhel, Justice Naeem Afghan, and Justice Aminuddin Khan opposed the petitions while Justice Yahya Afridi wrote a dissenting note. According to Justice Mansoor Ali Shah, the reasons for the decision should be mentioned later.
Justice Mansoor Ali Shah, declaring PTI entitled to reserved seats for women and non-Muslims, said that Tehreek-e-Insaf was and is a political party.
