ECP goes ahead with implementing SC ruling on reserved seats

ISLAMABAD: After a couple of days’ deliberations, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Friday announced it was going ahead with the implementation of the Supreme Court’s verdict which declared the PTI eligible for the seats reserved for minorities and women in the assemblies.

In a major legal victory for the PTI, the apex court on July 12 ruled the Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) “was and is a political party” that won general seats in the national and provincial assemblies in the February 8 general elections, thus, is entitled to reserved seats.

The electoral body said in a statement the decision was taken after deliberations on the reserved seats verdict in meetings on Thursday and Friday. The statement further said 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 statement 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 it worked in line with the Constitution and laws while not succumbing to any type of pressure. Moreover, the ECP stated 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 could not declare them PTI candidates, it added.

Meanwhile, the 41 candidates who had been declared independents had not mentioned the 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 Ittihad 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 the PTI was neither a petitioner in the case against the ECP in the apex court nor the PHC.