The vice-president of Tehreek Tahaffuz-e-Aain, Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar, interrupted the Supreme Court, requesting the implementation of a majority decision of the Supreme Court (SC), (Practice and Procedure) of the Committee of the Act (Dad) to set petitions against the 26th Constitutional Amendment before a full court.
The Committee, by a majority 2-1 on October 31, 2023, ordered the registraire SC to list the petitions on November 4. However, business was not planned to hear.
Through lawyer Shahid Jamil Khan, Khokhar deposited the petition under article 184, paragraph 3, of the Constitution, arguing that the committee’s decision remains legal, valid and binding.
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He argued that neither the registrar nor any administrative authority had the jurisdiction to ignore a legal order from the committee.
The petition affirmed that judicial independence is a fundamental constitutional principle and that the deviation undermines the rule of law, the fair trial and the regular procedure under articles 4, 9, 10A and 25.
He also declared that the reasons mentioned by the chief judge of Pakistan Yahya Afrida, including informal consultations and jurisdictional objections, do not include any legal basis to prevail over the official decision of the Committee under the legal mandate.
Khokhar argued that the non-compliance of the committee order is equivalent to an administrative irregularity, frustrates the legislative intention and undermines the collective authority of the SC, violating transparency, collegiality and institutional integrity.
The refusal to implement the ordinance, added the petition, deprives the stakeholders of their right to a fair hearing and the appropriate arbitration of the constitutional challenges, infiltrating articles 4, 10A and 25.
Find out more: The CJP faces criticisms to circumvent the majority decision to hear petitions contesting the 26th amendment
Earlier, the CJP Afridi was criticized after the report of Committee SC revealed that it had ignored the majority decision to form a full court on petitions against the 26th constitutional amendment.
In October 2023, Mansoor Ali Shah and Munib Akhtar judges, 2-1, ordered the registrar to repair the hearings in full court on November 4.
The CJP argued that the committee did not have the authority and rather consulted the judges individually, with nine supporting a constitutional bench.
The lawyers questioned the CJP decision, calling for the informal survey of the illegal judges and a violation of the binding decision of the committee. The criticisms said that avoiding a full court has undermined transparency and judicial independence.
Since then, the constitutional bench has not decided the question, while the legality of the bench itself is also in question.
Judges Shah and Akhtar have repeatedly urged the CJP to convene a full court, arguing that the amendment has large -scale constitutional implications.
