Lawyer Ali Zafar laments delay by ECP in hearing petitions
\nISLAMABAD
\nThe Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) reserved on Wednesday the verdict on the petitions filed by the Sunni Itthad Council (SIC) seeking the allocation of women and minority seats.
\nA five-member bench, chaired by Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja, conducted the hearing today.
\nThe electoral body took up the plea after President Alvi refused to sign a Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs summary seeking the convening of a National Assembly session.
\nPresident Alvi maintained that the remaining reserved seats should be allocated before summoning the NA session which was supposed to be held within 21 days of the elections under the Constitution.
\nIn the previous hearing, CEC Raja consolidated all the petitions filed by SIC, Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P), Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz\u2019s (PML-N).
\nMQM-P\u2019s Advocate Farogh Naseem, SIC\u2019s Barrister Ali Zafar, PPP\u2019s Advocate Farooq H Naek and PML-N\u2019s lawyer Azam Nazeer Tarar appeared before the five-member bench.
\nAt the outset of the hearing, Barrister Zafar presented his arguments saying that 86 independents, who won the National Assembly seats, joined the SIC.
\n\u201cA political party has the right to form a government and contest the elections and SIC is a political party which is registered and has an electoral symbol,\u201d said Zafar. He said that SIC has the right to form a government if independent candidates join the party.
\nAt this, a member of the commission said that SIC did not contest the February 8 polls. Barrister Zafar then said that the independents will play an important role in the presidential elections, adding that it has been written in the Constitution who will get the reserved seat. At this, the CEC assured that they would be allocated as per the Constitution. Zafar said that a party can include independent candidates and become a parliamentary party.
\nAt this point, CEC Raja said that they had a letter from the SIC which said that the party did not contest the polls and neither did it want the reserved seats.
\nBarrister Zafar said that the PTI did not know about the letter.
\nPPP\u2019s Naek said that the SIC has not submitted any priority list and the deadline has also passed away. Later, PML-N\u2019s Tarar said that a political party must win a few seats to claim reserved seats, however, the SIC did not contest polls.
\n\u201cA reserved seat can be nominated when it becomes vacant due to death, disqualification or resignation of a member,\u201d he added. He said that the reserved seats cannot be given to independents as per the law. MQM-P\u2019s lawyer Naseem said that SIC is not a parliamentary party, urging ECP to give the reserved seats to his party as per quota.
\n\u201cThe head of the SIC also contested the elections as an independent,\u201d he said.
\nAfter the competition of arguments, the ECP reserved the verdict.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Lawyer Ali Zafar laments delay by ECP in hearing petitions ISLAMABAD The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) reserved on Wednesday the verdict on the petitions filed by the Sunni Itthad Council (SIC) seeking the allocation of women and minority seats. A five-member bench, chaired by Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja, conducted the hearing today. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-390342","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-top-news"},"yoast_head":"\n