The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) won a huge legal victory on Friday when the Supreme Court declared that the party is qualified for reserved seats.
The 8-5 majority verdict, announced by Justice Mansoor Ali Shah, overturned the Peshawar High Court's (PHC) judgment, which maintained the Election Commission of Pakistan's (ECP) decision to deny the SIC reserved seats.
Justices Athar Minallah, Shahid Waheed, Muneeb Akhtar, Muhammad Ali Mazhar, Ayesha Malik, Syed Hassan Azhar Rizvi, and Irfan Saadat Khan all agreed with the PTI.
In its ruling, the court declared that the lack or denial of an election symbol has no bearing on a political party's constitutional or legal rights to participate in an election, whether general or by, and to field candidates, and that the commission has a constitutional obligation to apply all statutory provisions accordingly.
"PTI was and is a political party that secured general seats in the national and provincial assemblies in the general elections of 2024," the court's ruling stated.
Referring to the unique conditions and circumstances of the February 8 election, the Supreme Court ruled that any of the 80 candidates who the commission identified as PTI in any of the categories on the forms would be deemed the party's candidate.
The reserved seats problem arose after over 80 Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)-backed independent candidates won the February 8 elections and then joined the SIC to claim seats designated for minorities and women.
On February 21, the SIC petitioned the ECP to request the allotment of reserved seats. However, the PTI suffered a setback when the electoral commission, citing the party's failure to submit a list of candidates, rejected granting reserved seats to the SIC in a 4-1 majority decision on March 4.
The ECP noted in the ruling that it extended the time to submit a priority list for women's reserved seats, and SIC did not provide the required list, which was "mandatory" before the February 8 elections.
According to the ECP, the SIC cannot claim a portion of the allocated seats for women "due to non-curable procedural and legal defects and violations of mandatory provisions of the Constitution."
The party subsequently moved the PHC on March 6, which supported the electoral body's judgment in a March 14 verdict.
On April 2, the SIC filed a petition with the Supreme Court, seeking to overturn the PHC judgment and the allotment of 67 women and 11 minority seats in the assembly.
The allotment of reserved seats is significant since the PTI-backed independent candidates, who make up the bulk of the opposition benches, lost up to 77 reserved seats in the NA and provincial assemblies as a result of the PHC's ruling.