The Supreme Court of Pakistan on Friday declared Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) eligible for seats reserved for women and minorities, dealing a major setback to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s ruling coalition.

The verdict was announced by a 13-member bench, headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faez Isa, and was live-streamed on the court’s YouTube channel.

A day ago, the court had reserved its decision on the matter after closing the hearing on a set of appe­als moved by the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) aga­inst the denial of reserved seats for women and non-Muslims to it by the Pesha­war High Court (PHC) and the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).

PTI-backed candidates, who had contested and won the February 8 elections as independents after their party was stripped of its election symbol, had joined the SIC to form a coalition of convenience.

The top court on Friday annulled the decision of the PHC while also declaring the decision of the election regulator null and void, terming it against the Constitution of Pakistan.

“The order of the Election Commission of Pakistan, dated 1st of March 2024, is declared to be to ultra vires to (beyond the powers of) the Constitution, without lawful authority and of no legal effect,” the order of the verdict, a copy of which is available with Dawn.com, read.

“The notifications of various dates, whereby the persons respectively mentioned therein, being the persons identified in the commission’s notification, dated 13th of May, 2024, have been declared to be returned candidates for reserved seats for women and minorities in the national and provincial assemblies, are declared to be ultra vires to the Constitution, without lawful authority and of no legal effect, and are quashed from 6th of May 2024 onwards, being the date an interim order was made by the court in CPLA no. 13289 of 2024, the leave petitions out of which the instant appeals arise.”

The verdict also declared that “the lack or denial of an election symbol does not in any manner affect the constitutional and legal rights of a political party to participate in an election (whether general or by) and to field candidates and the Commission is under a constitutional duty to act, and construe and apply all statutory provisions, accordingly.”

The verdict further declared that “for purposes, and within the meaning, of paragraphs (d) and (e) of clause (6) of Article 51 (‘Article 51 Provisions’) and paragraph (c) of clause (3) of Article 106 (‘Article 106 Provisions’) of the Constitution, the Pakistan Tehreek e Insaf (‘PTI’) was and is a political party, which secured or won (the two terms being interchangeable) general seats in the national and provincial assemblies in the general elections of 2024”.

It also said that in the 2024 general election, 39 candidates from PTI were confirmed as elected members according to Article 51 Provisions.

“In the peculiar facts and circumstances of the General Election of 2024, it is declared that out of the aforesaid 80 returned candidates (now MNAs) those (being 39 in all and whose particulars are set out in Annex A to this order) in respect of whom the Commission has shown ‘PTI’ in any one of the aforesaid columns in the List, were and are the returned candidates whose seats were and have been secured by the PTI within the meaning, and for purposes of, para 5 above in relation to the Article 51 Provisions.”

The decision, announced by Justice Mansoor Ali Shah, was made based on a majority of eight judges.

The majority verdict was given by Justice Mansoor Ali Shah, Justice Shahid Waheed, Justice Ayesha Malik, Justice Irfan Saadat, Justice Athar Minallah, Justice Muneeb Akhtar, Justice Hasan Azhar Rizvi, and Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar.

PTI celebrates victory, demands CEC Raja’s immediate resignation

Reacting to the verdict, PTI members lauded the top court’s decision.

A post from the PTI’s official X account demanded the immediate resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Sikander Sultan Raja for “violating [the] Constitution of Pakistan”.

PTI leader and former KP finance minister Taimur Khan Jhagra congratulated Imran Khan and PTI supporters on the SC’s decision.

“We are on the right side of history, as difficult as that may be. The fight will go on,” he wrote on X, adding that there were “serious questions on the malafide intent” of the ECP.

Imran’s former aide Fawad Chaudhry echoed the party account’s sentiments, also demanding the resignation of the chief election commissioner in a post on X. He said the PTI should “demand ECP resignation after SCP has now official charge-sheeted ECP”.

Ex-human rights minister and former PTI leader Shireen Mazari also took to X to celebrate the verdict. “Justice served, but all the minority opinions incl [sic] the one CJP read out sounded confused at best unlike the clarity of the majority 8 mbr [sic] order!” she wrote.

PTI Punjab Acting President Hammad Azhar took to X and lauded the “eight principled judges” who “broke the chain of oppression and cruelty despite intense pressure”. He added that the remaining judges should release Imran and “all other innocent leaders and workers, end the forgery of Form 47, and restore democracy and human rights in the country”.

Party spokesman Raoof Hasan also extended his “hearty congratulations” to the PTI on X, lauding the SC for “breaking the barriers of intimidation”. “This is only the beginning of a long haul till we reach the final destination when Imran Khan shall take over as the prime minister of Pakistan,” he said. “Soon, very soon.”

‘Matter gone beyond interpretation’: law minister

Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar, while speaking to the press, said that the SC had the authority to interpret the law, however, the matter had gone beyond interpretation.

“It seems as if Articles 51 and 106 [of the Constitution] have been rewritten. New things have been added to it which — as a student of the Constitution — is difficult for me to digest,” Tarar said.

He said that the court’s decision would be respected by his party but as a lawyer and the law minister, the wording of the short order was blatantly against the “plain reading” of the Constitution.

“If you read the Constitution, simply then it (the short order) is the opposite of it,” he added.

The reserved seats issue

In a 4-1 verdict in March, the ECP had ruled that the SIC was not entitled to claim quota for reserved seats “due to having non-curable legal defects and violation of a mandatory provision of submission of party list for reserved seats”.

The commission had also decided to distribute the seats among other parliamentary parties, with the PML-N and the PPP becoming major beneficiaries with 16 and five additional seats while the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam Fazl (JUI-F) was given four. Meanwhile, the verdict was rejected by the PTI as unconstitutional.

Later the same month, the PHC had dismissed an SIC plea challenging the ECP decision and denied it reserved seats.

In April, the SIC filed a petition before the SC — moved by party chief Sahibzada Hamid Raza — seeking to set aside the PHC judgment.

The apex court on May 6 had suspended the March 14 PHC judgment as well as the March 1 ECP decision to deprive the SIC of seats reserved for women and minorities.

The SC had also ordered placing the present petitions before the three-judge committee that determines the constitution of the bench for the reconstitution of a larger bench when Attorney General for Pakistan Mansoor Usman Awan highlighted that under Section 4 of the Supreme Court (Practice and Procedure) Act 2023, the present case should be heard by a larger bench since the issue concerns the interpretation of constitutional provisions.

The ECP subsequently suspended victory notifications of as many as 77 members of the national and provincial assemblies elected on those seats.

The suspended lawmakers include 44 from PML-N, 15 from PPP, 13 from JUI-F and one each from PML-Q, IPP, PTI-P, MQM-P and ANP.

Resultantly, the ruling coalition lost a two-thirds majority in the lower house of Parliament for now, with its numerical strength shrinking to 209 from 228. In the House of 336, the magic figure to attain a two-thirds majority comes to 224.

The PML-N’s strength in the House has reduced from 121 to 107 while PPP’s from 72 to 67.

Those suspended include 22 members of the National Assembly elected on reserved seats for women and minorities. They include 14 from PML-N, five from PPP and three from JUI-F.

Headed by the CJP, a full court meeting on Wednesday had considered various aspects of the controversy at length since the case is of first impression and will have a far-reaching impact on the allotment of the reserved seats among political parties in the legislature in the future as well.

The real controversy before the court was how to deal with the reserved seats if they are neither doled out to other parties having a presence in Parliament and provincial assemblies nor allotted to the SIC that did not contest the Feb 8 general elections and thus failed to secure a single seat — a legal requirement for the allotment of reserved seats according to the ECP.

The SIC, however, argued that under the concept of a proportionate representation system, it was not a constitutional requirement for the allocation of reserved seats that a political party having general seats in the assemblies had contested the general elections.