SC to hear plea against proposed constitutional amendments on 17th

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court will hear a petition next week challenging the proposed amendments to the Constitution that seek to transfer the vested powers of the apex court and high courts.

A three-member bench of the Supreme Court, headed by Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa and comprising Justice Naeem Akhtar Afghan and Justice Shahid Bilal Hassan, is scheduled to hear the joint petition on October 17.

The petition was filed by former president of the Supreme Court Bar Association and current member of the Pakistan Bar Council Abid S. Zubairi along with other council members against the proposed constitutional amendments.

On September 16, Abid S. Zubairi, along with other Pakistan Bar Council members, including Shafqat Mahmood Chohan, Shahab Sarki, Chaudhry Ishtiaq Ahmed, Tahir Faraz Abbasi and Munir Ahmed Kakar, had filed the petition in the apex court under Article 184(3) of the Constitution. The petitioners had requested the Supreme Court to declare that the separation of powers, the independence of judiciary, and its authority to enforce fundamental rights are sacrosanct under the Constitution and beyond the power of parliament to withdraw, interfere with, or alter in any way.

Furthermore, the petitioners had requested the court to declare the proposed amendments, introduced through the bill, as unconstitutional and in violation of the basic structure of the Constitution, the principle of separation of powers, judicial independence and fundamental rights enshrined in the Constitution.

They had also sought an injunction restraining the federal government from presenting the bill in parliament, suspending the operation of the proposed amendments and preventing the bill from being enacted into law if passed by both houses.

It is worth mentioning that several other petitioners had also challenged the proposed constitutional amendments in the Supreme Court, seeking a declaration that they violate the basic framework of the Constitution.

Similarly, many petitioners had challenged the proposed amendments in various high courts across the country as well.