Although Friday’s verdict of the apex court will have no direct impact on the outcome of the Senate elections held in three provinces and the National Assembly in April, the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) is set to become the single largest party in the upper house of the parliament after the election on 11 Senate seats from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

According to constitutional and legal experts, the apex court’s verdict will have no impact on the Senate elections held in April because the judgement has been declared effective from May 6.

Quoting Paragraph No 3 of the SC order written by Justice Mansoor Ali Shah, Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development and Transparency (Pildat) president Ahmed Bilal Mehboob told Dawn that in his opinion there would be no impact of the verdict on the recently held Senate elections.

Moreover, he said, the Senate elections had not been challenged or questioned at any level during the hearing of the case.

Verdict becomes effective from May 6, which is the date when SC suspended PHC judgement

According to Paragraph No 3, “The notifications (of various dates) whereby the persons respectively mentioned therein (being the persons identified in the Commission’s notification No.F.5(1)/2024-Cord. dated 13.05.2024) 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 the Constitution, without lawful authority and of no legal effect, and are quashed from 06.05.2024 onwards, being the date an interim order was made by the Court in CPLA Nos. 1328-9 of 2024, the leave petitions out of which the instant appeals arise.”

On May 6, a three-judge SC bench headed by Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah had suspended the March 14 Peshawar High Court (PHC) judgement as well as the March 1 decision of the Election Commission of Pakistan to deprive the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) of seats reserved for women and minorities.

The SC had explained that the interim order related to the disputed seats only, i.e. the reserved seats allocated over and above the initially allocated reserved seats to the political parties. It was also clarified that this order was to operate prospectively with effect from May 6.

When contacted, senior lawyer Kashif Ali Malik said that the apex court had protected all the actions of those declared winners on the reserved seats as they had participated in the business of the National Assembly, including the election of the Senate.

However, another sen­i­or lawyer, who did not want to be named, felt that there was no justification of protecting the act­ions of the persons decl­a­red returned candidates on reserved seats from May 6.

He believed that it was against the spirit of Article 25 of the Constitution that ens­ures equality. “How could the actions of a person brought in the house illegally could be legal for a certain period and then become illegal,” he questioned.

Senior lawyer Shah Khawar said the apex court had shut the door of further litigation and averted a potential constitutional crisis by protecting the Senate elections.

Islamabad High Court Bar Association Secretary Shafqat Tarar was of the view that the Senate elections could have been questionable had the apex court set aside the notifications of the returned candidates from the date of issuance.

The elections on vacant Senate seats were held on April 2 whereas the ECP had delayed polling for Sen­ate elections in PTI-ruled KP Assembly following a controversy over the oath-taking of opposition law­makers on reserved seats.

Following the elections, the total strength of the upper house increased from 66 to 85, with 59 members belonging to the ruling coalition, led by the PML-N.

The PPP with its 24 senators presently forms one-fourth of the total strength of the house, but this hold will not remain for long, as elections on KP’s 11 seats are yet to be held.

As per the party position in the KP Ass­embly, it is expected that the PTI will get nine out of 11 seats.

At present, PTI and PML-N have 19 senators each, Balochistan Awami Party has four, while the MQM-P and ANP have three members each. The PML-Q, BNP-Mengal and the National Party have one member each.

After Senate elections in the KP, the PTI’s tally is expected to reach 28 which means it will emerge as the single largest party in the upper house as well after the implementation of the apex court’s verdict.

Malik Asad also contributed to this report

Published in Dawn, July 13th, 2024