Pakistan’s Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa comes to Election Commission’s rescue on reserved seats

ISLAMABAD (TIP): Amidst a legal tussle over the reserved seats in Pakistan’s legislatures, Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa has ruled that the election commission is not a subordinate institution to the Supreme Court or the government but an independent authority with a constitutional role to conduct elections. He was heading a full court of the Supreme Court (SC) hearing on July 1 on a set of appeals by the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) against the denial of reserved seats to women and non-Muslim candidates, the Dawn newspaper reported on Tuesday. The top judge said the Supreme Court can only exercise its jurisdiction if it is convinced that the commission has gone beyond its constitutional role, pointing out that ideally, all institutions should function within their own prescribed domain.
The Supreme Court ordered the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to do a calculation by applying the formula of allotting reserved seats among political parties based on the election results of 2018 by excluding, as well as including, independents to understand the difference, the report said. (PTI)