KARACHI: A petition filed in the Sindh High Court (SHC) on Saturday challenged the 26th Constitutional Amendment and asked the court to declare it against the Constitution.

This is the second petition in the SHC against the constitutional amendment passed last week. A challenge has also been submitted to the Supreme Court.

The recent petition, filed by two lawyers, asserted that the amendment was liable to be struck on the grounds of procedural impropriety as well as interference in the independence of the judiciary.

The petitioners contended that the amendment was “not passed” by the two-thirds majority in both houses of parliament as required by Article 239 of the Constitution.

Some lawmakers were “coerced or unlawfully inducted” to support the amendment, the petition claimed.

Besides, they argued that there were disputes regarding the status of several members of the National Assembly pending before election tribunals.

The petitioners asserted that certain clauses of the 26th Constitutional Amendment have “violated” the salient feature and basic structure of the Constitution.

They said the same “cannot be trampled” by the parliament as held by the Supreme Court in the case of Rawalpindi Bar Association (PLD 2015 SC 401).

The amendment “has empowered” the government to “control” the judiciary by appointing the chief justice and other judges of the higher judiciary.

This would also allow the executive to “influence” the judges since “non-judicial members” have now been inducted into the Judicial Commission of Pakistan.

The applicant requested the SHC to form a larger bench with its five most senior judges to hear this petition.

A few days earlier, another lawyer had filed an identical petition in the SHC and asserted that the amendment was “contrary to the principles of judicial independence and separation of powers”.

KBA rally

The Karachi Bar Association took out a rally from City Courts to the Karachi Press Club on Saturday against the amendment.

While addressing the protesters, KBA president Amir Nawaz Warraich and Sindh High Court Bar Association vice president Zubair Ahmed Abro called the amendment “a direct attack” on the independence of the judiciary.

They also claimed the amendment would “badly affect” the basic rights of people.

Published in Dawn, October 27th, 2024