A five-member larger bench of the Peshawar High Court is hearing a plea of the Sunni Ittehad Council challenging the Election Commission of Pakistan’s decision to reject the party allocation of reserved women and minority seats.

The bench is led by Justice Ishtiaq Ibrahim and also includes Justices Ijaz Anwar, S.M. Attique Shah, Shakeel Ahmed and Syed Arshad Ali.

Qazi Anwar has appeared as the counsel for the SIC while Farooq H. Naek is the lawyer for the PPP — a respondent in the case. PPP leaders Faisal Karim Kundi and Nayyer Bukhari also reached the PHC while Azam Swati appeared from the PTI’s side.

At the outset of the hearing, Anwar began presenting his arguments. He recalled that the PTI-backed independent candidates joined the SIC within three days of their winning notification as per the law.

Justice Ibrahim then asked if any candidate of the SIC had won the election, at which Justice Ali noted that the SIC chief had contested the Feb 8 polls as an independent candidate. Anwar informed the court, “Indeed, none of their candidates won.”