A constitutional bench (CB) of the Supreme Court on Monday live-streamed its proceedings for the first time as it resumed hearing a set of review pleas against the top court’s ruling that had declared the PTI eligible for reserved seats. In its July 12, 2024 short order, eight out of 13 judges ruled that 39 out of a list of 80 MNAs were and are the returned candidates of the PTI, setting it to emerge as the single largest party in the National Assembly. 

However, the ruling had not been implemented by the National Assembly, while the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) had raised some objections. The review petitions against the SC order had been filed by the PML-N, the PPP and the ECP. An 11-member CB led by Justice Aminuddin Khan resumed the hearing today after Justices Ayesha A. Malik and Aqeel Ahmed Abbasi had dismissed the review petitions on the first day of hearings. The proceedings are being live-streamed on the SC’s YouTube channel. 

The other 10 members of the bench are Justices Jamal Khan Mandokhail, Muhammad Ali Mazhar, Syed Hasan Azhar Rizvi, Musarrat Hilali, Naeem Akhter Afghan, Shahid Bilal Hassan, Muhammad Hashim Khan Kakar, Salahuddin Panhwar, Aamer Farooq and Ali Baqar Najafi. During Monday’s hearing, Justice Mandokhail observed that it was not a political party that contested the elections but rather its candidates. Senior counsel Makhdoom Ali Khan appeared on behalf of PML-N and PPP women candidates affected by the July 2024 ruling and concluded his arguments.

The ECP and PML-N lawyers also informed the court that they had submitted their written responses. Subsequently, the hearing was adjourned till tomorrow (Tuesday). Initially, a full-strength 13-member CB led by Justice Aminuddin took up the review pleas on May 6. However, Justices Ayesha and Abbasi declared the applications as inadmissible and were not part of the subsequent proceedings, with the CB head judge noting they had stepped back voluntarily. 

Justice Ayesha had formally complained to Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Yahya Afridi about her dissenting order not being uploaded to the SC’s website. In her judgement, she had criticised the ECP for not implementing the earlier order, observing that it would “not only undermine the authority of the Supreme Court but also erode the foundational values of democracy itself”. 

The Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC), which allied with the PTI during the 2024 elections and was a party in the reserved seats case, had requested the bench to put off the hearing until challenges to the 26th Amendment were decided and to include judges who had heard the original case. However, the CB dismissed those pleas, with Justice Aminuddin observing that review petitions could be heard even by a bench smaller than the original bench after the 26th Amendment.

Credit: Independent News Pakistan (INP)