ECP “bound to implement judgment” passed by Supreme Court without seeking any further clarification

Staff Report/DNA

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court has reiterated that parliament’s amendment to the Elections Act does not have a retrospective effect and it cannot undo the top court’s judgment in the reserved seats case.

The second clarification comes after the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) separately approached the apex court last month, seeking a clarification on its order to grant reserved seats to the Imran Khan-founded party.

The top court declared on July 12 that the embattled PTI was eligible for seats reserved for women and minorities. However, the government passed an amendment to the Election Act, 2017, forcing the ECP to seek clarification from the top court.

In response, the apex court’s judges, who issued the order, stressed that the request was “misconceived” and ordered the poll organising authority to follow through on the verdict.

Then, the court on September 23 issued a detailed verdict declaring the PTI a parliamentary party, stating that 39 of the 80 MNAs are affiliated with the PTI, while the remaining 41 have the chance to resubmit their party affiliations.

However, despite the court’s clarification and the detailed verdict, the ECP has yet to allot reserved seats to the PTI.

The ECP, in its civil miscellaneous application (CMA), submitted that the top court’s short order was based on the law which has since been altered by the amendments made to Sections 66 and 104 of the Elections Act, 2017 and a new Section, namely 104-A, has also been inserted with retrospective effect from the date of the commencement of the act, the SC stated in the clarification.

On the other hand, PTI submitted in its CMA that the short order passed by the SC was based on the interpretation and enforcement of constitutional provisions, therefore the amendments cannot supplant the effect of the short order, it added.

“The court [SC] granted the relief in the short order to enforce the right of the electorate through political parties to have proportional representation in the reserved seats under paragraphs (d) and (e) of clause (6) of Article 51 and paragraph (c) of clause (3) of Article 106 of the Constitution, therefore, the amendments made in the Elections Act after the release of our short order will have no bearing and the Commission is bound to implement the judgment passed by the Supreme Court of Pakistan, in its letter and spirit, without seeking any further clarification.

In its previous clarification on September 14, the top court had come down hard on the ECP for its “attempts to create confusion” on its July 12 reserved seats verdict, saying that the clarification sought by the commission was nothing but an attempt to “obstruct implementation” of the judgment declaring PTI eligible for reserved seats in parliament.