Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa Questions PTI’s Merger with SIC After February Elections

Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faez Isa asked why Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) decided to merge with the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) following the February 8 elections. His remarks came during a hearing of a petition filed by SIC against the Peshawar High Court’s (PHC) decision denying reserved seats for women and minorities in the national and provincial assemblies.

A full court 13-member bench, headed by CJP Isa, is reviewing the case. The bench includes Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah, Justice Muneeb Akhtar, Justice Yahya Afridi, Justice Amin-ud-Din Khan, Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail, Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar, Justice Ayesha A Malik, Justice Athar Minallah, Justice Syed Hassan Azhar Rizvi, Justice Shahid Waheed, Justice Irfan Saadat Khan, and Justice Naeem Akhtar Afghan.

CJP Isa questioned why independent candidates left PTI to join another party, which contradicts their arguments. He noted that if the independent candidates had stayed with PTI, there would be no issue today.

PTI leader Kanwal Shuzab’s counsel Salman Akram Raja and SIC counsel Faisal Siddiqui have completed their arguments. PTI-backed independent candidates joined SIC to claim reserved seats for minorities and women, but the Election Commission did not allocate these seats due to SIC’s failure to submit its list of candidates.

Earlier, SIC chief Sahibzada Hamid Raza and the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly speaker moved the Supreme Court to overturn the PHC verdict and allocate 67 women and 11 minority seats. In May, a three-member Supreme Court bench suspended the PHC verdict and referred the matter to a larger bench for constitutional interpretation.

Last week, the Election Commission of Pakistan informed the Supreme Court that SIC does not qualify for reserved seats as it does not allow non-Muslims to be part of it and failed to submit the candidate list by the deadline.