By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly Speaker, Sardar Ayaz Sadiq, said on Thursday that recent amendments to the country’s election laws override a Supreme Court ruling granting Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) party reserved parliamentary seats, sparking fears of a potential constitutional showdown.
The letter came after the Supreme Court censured the election regulatory authority last week over “dilatory tactics” in implementing its July judgment on reserved seats for women and minorities in national and provincial legislatures.
A 13-member bench ruled on July 12 in favor of Khan’s PTI party, threatening the ruling coalition’s two-thirds majority.
PTI-backed candidates, who ran as independents after losing their party symbol, joined the Sunni Ittehad Council to claim reserved seats, as independents are ineligible.
In response, parliament passed the Elections (Second Amendment) Bill, 2024, restricting PTI’s access to reserved seats. The bill deems candidates who fail to declare party affiliation before seeking an election symbol as independents.
The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), meanwhile, expressed concerns about who to contact in the PTI party for verification, citing the party’s lack of structure and unrecognized intra-party elections. The ECP sought clarification on the Supreme Court’s July verdict.
However, the Supreme Court deemed the ECP’s request “misconceived” last week and emphasized that the commission cannot delay implementation by seeking unnecessary clarification. The court warned that any further delay or refusal to implement its decision may expose the ECP to consequences.
Speaker Sadiq stated that the Supreme Court’s judgment on reserved seats “cannot be implemented under the Amended Election Act, 2017.”
“As the judgment of the SC was rendered based on the law prior to the enactment of the amendment, the said judgment is now incapable of implementation,” Sadiq wrote in a letter to the ECP.
The letter noted that, in the context of the Amended Election Act, which was passed after the Supreme Court verdict, the ruling on reserved seats cannot be implemented under the new law. “Instead, it is the Amended Election Act that shall prevail and supersede the prior ruling.”
Sadiq pointed out that consistent Supreme Court jurisprudence holds that parliamentary law is superior to court orders. “It is also brought to your kind notice that the Amended Election Act is in the field; therefore, it is the statutory obligation of the ECP to honor the laws made by Parliament and uphold the principles of democracy and parliamentary supremacy.”
The speaker warned that actions perceived as undermining parliament’s sovereignty can “erode public trust and confidence in our institutions.”
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