ECP decides to implement SC judgment on reserved seats case

ISLAMABAD (92 News) - The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Friday decided to implement the judgment of the Supreme Court regarding the reserved seats cas.

The decision was made during a meeting held on Thursday and Friday. The commission issued instructions to its legal team to identify any obstacle in the implementation of the verdict so that the Supreme Court can be approached for further guidance.

The ECP strongly condemned and rejected unnecessary criticism by a political party. “The demand for resignation from the commission is ridiculous. The commission will continue to work in accordance with the constitution and the law without considering any kind of pressure,” the statement said.

It added that the ECP did not misinterpret any judgment. “The ECP had not validated PTI's intra-party elections and the PTI approached different against it. As the PTI intra-elections were not valid, the election symbol of ‘bat’ was withdrawn under Section 215 of the Elections Act. Therefore, blaming the ECP is very inappropriate.”

The statement said that the 39 MNAs declared as PTI MNAs had indicated their affiliation with the PTI in their nomination papers. “To be a candidate of a party, it is mandatory to submit the party ticket and declaration to the returning officer. Therefore, it was not possible for the returning officers to declare them as PTI candidates.”

According to the statement, the 41 candidates who have been declared independent have neither mentioned the PTI in their nomination papers nor disclosed the affiliation of the party and nor submitted any party ticket.

Therefore, the returning officers allowed them to participate in the election in an independent capacity. After winning the election, these MNAs voluntarily joined the Sunni Ittehad Council within three days as per the law.

In the Supreme Court, the Sunni Ittehad Council appealed against the decision of the Election Commission and the Peshawar High Court. This appeal of the Sunni Ittehad Council was rejected. The PTI was neither a party in the ECP nor a party before the Peshawar High Court nor a party in the Supreme Court in this case.