ISLAMABAD: The Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), on Monday, challenged the 26th constitutional amendment in the Supreme Court, saying it contradicts several provisions of the Constitution.
Ameer JI Hafiz Naeemur Rehman, on Monday, filed a constitutional petition through advocate Imran Shafiq and cited the Federation through secretary Ministry of Law and Justice and the chief secretaries of all the four provinces as respondents.
The petitioner contended that the amendment was against fundamental human rights. “It also contravenes basic constitutional structure and several constitutional provisions. So, therefore, it should be declared null and void.”
The JI prayed to the apex court to declare that the chief justice of Pakistan (CJP) would be appointed on the basis of seniority and also declare the appointment of a CJP by a parliamentary party null and void. It also requested the court to suspend the formation of new judicial commission.
Imran Shafiq contended that the amendment contradicts several constitutional provisions. The petitioner maintains that the amendment disrupts the established constitutional framework and calls for it to be nullified.
Last week, former president Abid Shahid Zuberi and three members of Pakistan Bar Council and Balochistan Bar Council and Association also filed the petition under Article 184(3) of the Constitution.
They had challenged the proposed 26th constitutional amendment last month, but a three-judge bench, headed by former Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa, and comprising Justice Naeem Akhtar Afghan and Justice Shahid Bilal Hassan on October 17 dismissed their petitions as withdrawn.
The amendment, which the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N)-led coalition pushed through Parliament, faced significant opposition from the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and other lawmakers.
The opposition parties that supported the government in passing the amendments included Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) and Balochistan National Party-Mengal (BNP), allowing it to surpass the two-thirds majority required.
On October 21, 2024, President Asif Ali Zardari ratified the 26th Constitutional Amendment on the advice of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif after crucial amendments were passed by two-thirds members of the Parliament.
In their latest petition, Shahid Zuberi raised questions whether a vote of a Parliamentarian obtained through coercion and/ or duress is valid and can be counted for the passage of a bill and more so of a Constitutional Amendment Bill?
“Whether an incomplete Parliament whose legitimacy is seriously under challenge on account of flawed elections can introduce, debate and pass the Constitution (Twenty-sixth Amendment) Act, 2024?
“Whether an incomplete Parliament denudes an assembly of a Joint deliberative process which is an essential feature of a Constituent Assembly?”
The petitioners prayed the apex court to declare 26th Amendment abrogates, repeals, alters and/or destroys the basic features of the Constitution and therefore is non-est, void ab initio and in violation fundamental rights as enshrined in the 1973 Constitution.
They also asked the Court to declare that the Twenty-sixth Amendment, specifically Sections 7, 10, 12, 13, 14, 17, 21, 22 and 27, along with any other provisions amended pursuant to these sections, are ultra vires and violate the salient features and fundamental rights enshrined in the Constitution of Pakistan, 1973 and therefore unconstitutional.
They further prayed to declare that the Constitution Act, 2024 has repealed, altered, abrogated and destroyed the Salient Features of the Constitution including the fundamental rights, the independence of judiciary, principles of separation powers and right to access to justice.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2024
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