KARACHI: A provincial law officer on Thursday informed the Sindh High Court that a bill had been placed before the provincial assembly to replace the constitutional benches ordinance.

Citing the speaker of the provincial assembly, the chief secretary, law secretary and others as respondents, various petitions have landed in the court impugning promulgation of an ordinance empowering the constitutional benches (CBs) of the SHC with exclusive jurisdiction over constitutional matters under Article 199.

When a two-judge constitutional bench (CB) of the SHC headed by Justice Adnan Iqbal Chaudhry took up these petitions for hearing, an additional advocate general submitted that a bill had been placed before the Sindh Assembly in terms similar to the impugned ordinance and it was likely that the same would be deliberated upon in the upcoming assembly session.

The AAG also submitted that in order to save the time of court, the matter may be adjourned. Therefore, the bench adjourned the hearing till Jan 14.

Earlier, the petitioners asked the SHC to strike down the Constitutional Benches of the High Court of Sindh (Practice and Procedure) Ordinance on the grounds that it had transgressed constitutional limits, exceeded the legislative competence of the provincial assembly and violated the guarantees of judicial independence.

They argued that the impugned ordinance had effectively ousted the jurisdiction of other benches (regular benches) of the SHC and it was not a matter of procedure but of substantive judicial power which was only the prerogative of Constitution and not of subordinate legislation.

They further inter alia asserted that Section 6 of the Ordinance which declares refusal by a judge to accept nomination to the constitutional bench will “prima facie amount to misconduct” was beyond the legislative competence of the provincial assembly and consequently the governor, so also ultra vires to Articles 202-A and 209 of the Constitution of Pakistan.

Published in Dawn, December 12th, 2025