reserved seats, independent candidates cannot form a parliamentary party: Govt

Supreme Court of Pakistan Attorney General of Pakistan General Mansoor Awan said in his arguments that independent candidates cannot form a parliamentary party, they have to join some parliamentary party.

The full court, headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Qazi Faiz Isa, heard the Sunni Etihad Council’s pleas regarding the reserved seats, which was adjourned till July 9, 2024, after the arguments of the Attorney General were completed. At the next hearing, the lawyer of the Sunni Etihad Council will respond.

In his arguments, Attorney General Manzoor Awan said that ‘independent candidates have to join the same political party, which has won at least one seat in the parliament.’

On this, Chief Justice Qazi Faiz Isa inquired: ‘In other words, if a political party has a winning candidate, the political party automatically becomes a parliamentary party.’

On which Attorney Journal said that ‘Article 51 will not be enforced if an independent candidate forms a party.’

Justice Jamal Mandukhel inquired on this occasion that ‘the independent candidate will be considered a party outside the assembly.’

Attorney General Mansoor Awan said that an independent candidate cannot join a political party that is not a parliamentary party.

Earlier, during the hearing of this case on Monday, Election Commission’s lawyer Sikandar Bashir had completed the arguments, while Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam F adopted the arguments of the Election Commission, on the other hand, Advocate General Khyber Pakhtunkhwa adopted the arguments of the Sunni Alliance Council. are taken

Arguments of Sunni Ittehad Council counsel

Sunni Unity Council Faisal Siddiqui’s lawyer argued during the hearing of the case that Justice Jamal Mandukhel’s question was why PTI did not contest the election as a party, Salman Akram Raja had applied for the same which was not approved, there is no contradiction. Not that the Sunni Ittehad Council did not contest the election, that is why the Sunni Ittehad Council did not submit the list first for the specific seats. Article 63A makes a distinction between a political party and a parliamentary party, a political party which does not have any seat in the parliament is not a parliamentary party.

The court inquired, ‘What were you on February 8? Who is your boss? How is the head of the parliamentary party elected?’

Faisal Siddiqui replied: ‘We were a political party on February 8, when independent candidates joined, we became a parliamentary party.’

Arguments of Election Commission counsel

Sikander Bashir, the lawyer of the Election Commission, argued that under the Election Act, the party affiliation certificate and Form 66 are on record. signed, when party affiliation certificate and Form 66 were issued, Tehreek-e-Insaaf had not conducted intra-party elections.

Lawyer Sikandar Bashir further said that ‘Blank in nomination papers means independent candidate, PTI issued Form 66 on December 22 and party affiliation certificates on January 13, PTI issued party affiliation certificates along with nomination papers. Should have applied.’

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On this, Justice Jamal Mandukhel said that ‘Tell me, it is written in the nomination papers of PTI that the certificates are attached.’

On this occasion, Justice Muneeb Akhtar also said that ‘You are saying that the certificates are invalid because the chairman of Tehreek-e-Insaf was not elected until then?’

Lawyer Sikander Bashir replied: ‘When the Chairman Tehreek-e-Insaf was not elected while submitting the certificate, the nomination papers are not valid. In the nomination papers, Hamid Raza expressed his commitment to the Sunni Ittehad Council, Hamid Raza should have issued himself a ticket as the Chairman of the Sunni Ittehad Council, Hamid Raza submitted the nomination papers on December 22 and called himself the candidate of the Sunni Ittehad Council. He wrote in brackets in the nomination papers that the alliance is from Tehreek-e-Insaaf, Hamid Raza submitted the party affiliation certificate on January 13 and each document is different from his previous document.

Lawyer Sikandar Bashir told the court that the Election Commission gave a decision on December 22, Peshawar High Court on January 10 and the Supreme Court on January 13. Something could have happened if Tehreek-e-Insaf had told about the intra-party elections on February 7. People were elected members of the National Assembly as independent candidates but did not merge into the Sunni Ittehad Council.

Arguments of PTI Chairman Barrister Gauhar

Justice Jamal Mandukhel said to Barrister Gauhar that ‘You were asked at the first hearing whether PTI submitted declarations and certificates, so you said yes, but according to the records of the Election Commission, few nomination papers have been submitted, not a few. . Which of your statements is correct?’

Barrister Gauhar told the court that ‘each candidate can submit two forms, we have submitted the independent candidate and Tehreek-e-Insaf forms, the Election Commission has brought one form, and the forms of Tehreek-e-Insaaf have also been requested.’

Justice Mansoor Ali Shah inquired that ‘elections have to be fought on one basis, how did you write two?’

Gohar Ali Khan said: ‘Four nomination papers are submitted for one constituency, there is also a covering candidate, nomination papers were not submitted from separate parties. The certificates were delivered at four o’clock on December 22, the decision of the Election Commission came at nine o’clock at night, the Election Commission did not give most of the records to the Supreme Court.

Arguments of the Attorney General of Pakistan

Attorney General Mansoor Awan argued that Article 51 indicates that reserved seats are meant to empower women. In 2002, for the first time, women got representation in the national, provincial, senate.

Regarding the representation of women, Attorney General Mansoor Awan, explaining the seats in the past National Assemblies, said that after the eighteenth amendment, 60 specific seats mean to increase the representation, Article 51 means to give the representation of non-Muslims in the assemblies along with women. ‘

The Attorney General informed the Supreme Court about the voting procedure in the Senate and the National Assembly and said that ‘only a political party is eligible for certain seats by getting votes. The seats in the assemblies are filled by general elections and then the reserved seats. The seats in the assemblies must be filled. The purpose of the constitution is to give representation to women, non-Muslims. If the seats in the assembly are not filled, then the purpose of the constitution is not fulfilled. Yes, the formula shows how many general seats are needed to get a specific seat.

Attorney General Mansoor Awan gave the example of Balochistan Assembly and placed the formula before the Supreme Court.

Reserved Seats of Sunni Unity Council: What Happened So Far?

The Election Commission of Pakistan, ruling under Article 53 Clause VI of the Constitution, Section 104 of the Election Act, rejected the request of the Sunni Ittehad Council for allotment of reserved seats.

The Election Commission had said in its written decision that ‘Sunni Ittehad Council cannot be allotted reserved seats and due to violation of law and failure to provide the party list in the beginning, Sunni Ittehad Council is not entitled to reserved seats.’

The Election Commission further said that ‘Sunni Ittehad Council has not submitted the list for specific seats, so these specific seats will not remain vacant and will be distributed among the political parties on the basis of specific proportional representation.’

Similarly, the Peshawar High Court also upheld the decision of the Election Commission, on which the Sunni Ittehad Council approached the Supreme Court.

The Sunni Ittehad Council filed an appeal against the decision of the Election Commission, while the Speaker of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly filed an appeal against the decision of the Peshawar High Court.

Initially, a three-member bench of the Supreme Court headed by Justice Mansoor Ali Shah was formed to hear this case, which on May 6 this year suspended the decision of the Election Commission and the Peshawar High Court to give the Sunni Etihad Council seats to other parties. and referred the matter to the Practice and Procedure Committee for constituting a full court or a larger bench on the request of the Attorney General, after which the full court was constituted on June 3.

The Supreme Court, in a written order suspending the decision of the Election Commission, said that the votes cast by the members so far and the opinions in the legislation will not be considered suspended. The order of the Supreme Court will not apply from the past but from today. Between today and June 3, no new legislation can be enacted by the vote of these specific seats.

Party position in the House

There are currently 13 parties in the National Assembly, of which six parties are part of the ruling coalition. The six ruling coalition parties have a combined total of 208 seats, short of the two-thirds majority of 224.

A two-thirds majority will be required for constitutional amendment. After the decision of the Election Commission, the reserved seats were distributed among all the other parties, then the ruling coalition got a two-thirds majority, which has again increased to 208 after the Supreme Court suspended the decision.

The total number of reserved seats in the National and Provincial Assemblies of the Sunni Unity Council is 78, of which 23 belong to the National Assembly and the rest belong to the Provincial Assemblies.