ISLAMABAD: The 26th Amendment has been challenged by former parliamentarians and an ex-president of the Sindh High Court Bar Association (SHCBA) in two separate petitions, seeking nullification of the judiciary-centric constitutional tweaks.
The coalition government had passed the contentious constitutional package in both houses of parliament on night between October 20-21 after month-long political deliberations between treasury and opposition lawmakers.
The latest petitions raised the total number of challenges to eight against the 26th Amendment containing a set of laws related to the country’s judiciary, including fixing three-year term of the Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) as well as the formation of constitutional benches.
In one of the petitions filed in the apex court on Friday, the petitioners include Balochistan National Party—Mengal (BNP-M) President Akhtar Mengal, former National Assembly speaker Fahmida Mirza, National Democratic Movement (NDM) Chairman and ex-lawmaker Mohsin Dawar, and former Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) senator Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar. The petition — making federation, Judicial Commission of Pakistan, Special Parliamentary Committee, Senate chairman, and Election Commission of Pakistan as parties in the case — sought the top court’s order to declare the judicial package null and void.
It also questioned the way of passing the 26th Amendment from parliament, terming it violative to the Constitution and law, and sought a thorough probe into the “coercive” voting of the parliamentarians.
The former parliamentarians, in their joint petition, prayed the top court to strike down sections 7, 14, 17, and 21 of the 26th Constitutional Amendment Act, 2024, being violative of the independence of the judiciary besides nullifying all “all acts, decisions, notifications, proceedings or superstructure by any person, authority or body based upon the same”.
They also sought to strike down the “so-called” Judicial Commission and the “Constitutional Benches” besides voiding all their proceedings and acts.
In the second petition filed by former SHCBA president Salauddin Ahmed today, the top court was also prayed to strike down the Supreme Court (Practice and Procedure) (Amendment) Act, 2024, and the Supreme Court (Number of Judges) (Amendment) Act, 2024. –Agencies
