SC to take up pleas against 26th Amendment on Oct 7

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court would take up next month scores of petitions challenging the 26th Constitutional Amendment.

Scores of petitions had been filed in the Supreme Court challenging the amendment, with repeated requests from the petitioners as well as a senior judge of the Supreme Court to constitute a Full Court to hear them.

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court fixed these scores of petitions for hearing on October 7 before an eight-member Constitutional Bench, headed by Justice Aminuddin Khan. Other members of the bench include Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail, Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar, Justice Ayesha A Malik, Justice Syed Hassan Azhar Rizvi, Justice Musarat Hilali, Justice Naeem Akhtar Afghan and Justice Shahid Bilal Hassan. The Constitutional Bench will resume hearing the petitions on October 7 at 11:30 am.

It is pertinent to mention that the Supreme Court’s Constitutional Bench, on January 27, had issued notices to the parties in the identical petitions against the 26th Constitutional Amendment and adjourned the hearing for three weeks.

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC), as well as various Bar Associations and former presidents of the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA), had challenged the amendment. During the hearing, counsel for the petitioners, including Hamid Khan and Faisal Siddiqui, had requested the formation of a Full Court bench to hear the case.

Justice Mandokhail, however, observed that a Full Court bench cannot be constituted as per the wishes of the counsels for the petitioners.

He further observed that judges for the Constitutional Bench are nominated by the Judicial Commission of Pakistan; hence, they are part of the Constitutional Bench, adding that a three-member committee of the Bench decides on the fixation of cases related to constitutional matters.