Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faez Isa questioned on Monday why the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chose suicide by merging with the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) before the February 8 elections.
CJP Isa expressed these remarks during a hearing on the case filed by the SIC, a PTI ally, challenging the Peshawar High Court's (PHC) decision denying reserved seats for women and minorities in national and provincial assemblies.
A full court bench of 13 judges, led by CJP Isa, includes Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah, Justice Muneeb Akhtar, Justice Yahya Afridi, Justice Amin-ud-Din Khan, Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail, Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar, Justice Ayesha A Malik, Justice Athar Minallah, Justice Syed Hassan Azhar Rizvi, Justice Shahid Waheed, Justice Irfan Saadat Khan, and Justice Naeem Akhtar Afghan.
"Why did independent candidates leave the PTI, which is a political party?" "Why did you commit suicide by joining another party that contradicts your arguments?" inquired the Chief Justice.
The CJP stated that if the independent candidates had stayed with the PTI, there would be no difficulty today.
The PTI had joined hands with the SIC to contest the February 8 elections after the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) removed the party's electoral symbol, a decision affirmed by the Supreme Court.
However, this did not benefit the party because the electoral commission refused to allot reserved seats to the SIC, citing its failure to submit a list of candidates.
The party then petitioned the PHC on the matter, and the court confirmed the electoral body's judgment.
In April, SIC leader Sahibzada Hamid Raza, together with the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly speaker, petitioned the Supreme Court to overturn the PHC judgment and allocate 67 women and 11 minority seats in the assembly.
On May 6, a three-member Supreme Court bench led by Justice Mansoor Ali Shah and including Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar and Justice Athar Minallah suspended the PHC verdict.
It then sent the case to the judges' committee for the formation of a larger bench since the issue required constitutional interpretation.
Meanwhile, the ECP responded to the Supreme Court last week, stating that the SIC is ineligible for allocated seats since the political party does not let non-Muslims join.
The ECP notified the Supreme Court that the reserved seats could not be allotted to the SIC since the party did not submit a list of candidates by the January 24 deadline.