Ex-parliamentarians challenge 26th Amendment in Supreme Court

ISLAMABAD: Four former parliamentarians and an ex-president of the Sindh High Court Bar Association (SHCBA) have sought nullification of the contentious judiciary-centric 26th Amendment in two separate petitions filed in the Supreme Court.

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.

Here's copy of petition filed by ex-lawmakers:

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.

Given below is copy of petition filed by the ex-SHCBA president:

Speaking to journalists outside the Supreme Court, former PPP senator Khokhar alleged that the BNP-M members of parliament were “harassed” and booked in different cases. He said that the constitutional package was tantamount to the weakening the state.

NDM Chief Dawar also slammed the incumbent government for “mocking the public opinion in the parliament” via passing the constitutional amendments in a questionable manner.

Throwing shade at Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif's administration, Dawar said that the government shied away from holding debates and following parliamentary procedures on the judiciary-centric legislation, whereas, there was no representation of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province in the Senate.

The ruling coalition had succeeded in pushing the highly contentious judicial reforms through the parliament via a two-thirds majority with 225 and 65 votes in the lower and upper house, respectively last month.

During the process, the major opposition party — the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) — refrained from voting on the constitutional package which was passed on the night between October 20-21.

Following the approval of the said legislation by the parliament, President Asif Ali Zardari had signed the "26th Amendment Bill" into law on the advice of PM Shehbaz on the same day.