Justices Mansoor Ali Shah and Munib Akhtar of the Supreme Court on Monday wrote to Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Yahya Khan Afridi, seeking the fixation of pleas challenging the recently adopted 26th Constitutional Amendment “during the current week.”
Signed by both judges in their capacity as two of the three members of the Practice and Procedure Committee that fixes cases and forms benches, the letter notes they had sought a meeting of the Committee on Oct. 31 for “urgent” consideration of pleas related to the 26th Constitutional Amendment. When the meeting was not convened, they state, they proceeded under Section 2(2) of the Supreme Court (Practice and Procedure) Act, 2023 and held the meeting the same day.
“The decision of the Committee, which was promptly communicated on the same day and is binding and effective in terms of Section 2(3) of the Act, was that the constitutional petitions challenging the 26th constitutional amendment be placed before the full court (on the judicial side) and fixed for hearing on Nov. 4, 2024,” it states.
Expressing “deep concern and regret” that no cause list of the full court was issue for Nov. 4, they maintained that the decision of their committee continued to stand and must be given effect. “We are therefore constrained to require the fixation of the aforementioned constitutional petitions before the full court positively during the current week, and for the cause list to be issued accordingly forthwith,” it added.
It further directed the Supreme Court registrar to upload the committee’s decision of Oct. 31, 2024 on the official website of the apex court.
Prior to and following the enactment of the 26th constitutional amendment, several petitions have been filed seeking a review of the judicial reforms introduced by the legislation. These include pleas of several lawyers’ bodies, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, and the Jamaat-e-Islami.