THE Supreme Court has restored the status of PTI as a political party and ordered the ECP to allocate the reserved seats to it as per its share in the assemblies, while overturning the Peshawar High Court endorsement of denial of these seats to the party.

Neutral observers joined the PTI in hailing the majority SC decision as a huge win and the righting of a wrong against it. The PML-N predictably appeared unhappy and started to question elements of the verdict which, it believes, gave PTI relief that the party had not even sought.

The PML-N and other elements of the hybrid regime it fronts would be well advised to accept the verdict, as there is no other option and move on in the hope that it does not create a momentum for an accelerated end to the current government.

What I mean by an accelerated end is that an infuriated judiciary, after several reported instances of intimidation/ attempted intimidation, can now put its foot down on the accelerator in terms of the election tribunals that will hear petitions against the declaration of ‘success’ of the PML-N, MQM, etc, in constituencies where the PTI believes it was robbed of a legitimate win.

The practitioners of realpolitik and the guardians of the Constitution and law have demonstrably and dramatically diverged.

This isn’t to say that for a sizable parliamentary majority of the governing coalition — even if the country’s highest court has struck down what was always seen........

© Dawn