THE verdict is in. It was the PTI, not ‘PTI-backed independents’, which won the most seats in the Feb 8 general election. This distinction, for those not familiar with the twists and turns of the reserved seats saga, is especially significant as it has been made by the Supreme Court itself.

The majority judgement means that not only will the PTI be restored as a lawful political party in the national and provincial assemblies, but it will also be able to claim a large share of reserved seats for minorities and women and, thereby, solidify its position in the various legislatures.

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This is a stunning reversal of fortunes for a party that was, both before and after the recent general election, being treated as a defunct entity with seemingly no political rights based on the ECP’s gross misinterpretation of the Supreme Court’s Jan 13 verdict that denied the PTI the use of its ‘bat’ symbol.

“The PTI was and remains a political party,” the Supreme Court clarified shortly after noon to an anxious crowd gathered on its premises on a sweltering Friday. On this point, 11 of the 13 judges seemed to agree. The majority upheld that the denial of an election symbol to a political party does not affect its constitutional and legal rights to continue functioning as a political entity, including its right to participate in an election or to field its candidates.

It was these rights that the ECP had so blatantly subverted when it repeatedly refused to let PTI candidates contest on their party-issued tickets and insisted on treating its returned candidates as independents. Now, through its judgement, the Supreme Court has, as a form of restorative justice, allowed the PTI to reorganise itself in parliament and make a fresh bid for the reserved seats that were denied to it, as is its right.

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In so doing, the Supreme Court has undone a historic injustice. The PTI-SIC alliance was always an abnormality, a marriage of convenience necessitated by the unique and arbitrary conditions and restrictions imposed on the PTI by the ECP. To make matters worse, the ECP not only refused to recognise the coalition’s right to a share of reserved seats, it also gifted them to other parties.

The decision flew in the face of reason and the principles of proportional representation and, therefore, had to be undone. Fortunately, the majority of the judges decided to go further and do complete justice by undoing the series of wrongs that had been caused by the ECP’s reprehensible decisions based on the ‘bat’ judgement. It is now hoped that this judgement will preclude the kind of blatant engineering that defined this last general election. The government and establishment must not stand in the way of its implementation.

Published in Dawn, July 13th, 2024