ISLAMABAD – The Supreme Court of Pakistan (SC) on Monday issued notices to the parties on petitions challenging the 26th Constitutional Amendment, formation of a full court for its hearing and live broadcasting on TV.
The SC constitutional bench was hearing the matter.
During the proceedings, Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar remarked that the matter of a full court could only be referred to the Chief Justice while Justice Jamal Mandokhail while addressing the petitioner’s counsel remarked that “it seems you have been in a fighting mood from the very beginning,”.
On it, Advocate Faisal Siddiqui said that they do not want to fight with anyone.
Justice Aminuddin remarked that if any party is unwilling to present arguments, the court would issue an order. Justice Jamal Mandokhail remarked that he couldn’t understand why they were hesitant and added that anyone unwilling to argue before the bench should sit back.
Justice Ayesha Malik said that there is no restriction on forming a full court.
Faisal Siddiqui, the lawyer, argued that the 26th Constitutional Amendment violates the principle of the distribution of powers while Uzair Bhandari stated that the parliament was incomplete when the 26th Amendment was approved.
Justice Jamal Mandokhail asked whether voting for the 26th Constitutional Amendment was done by all members or only the available members. Faisal Siddiqui informed that voting was carried out by the available members, to which Justice Mandokhail inquired whether the available members met the two-thirds requirement of the house.
Faisal Siddiqui said that the government had completed the counting and they were not raising any issues about it.
Justice Ayesha Malik asked if all provinces were properly represented in the parliament.
The petitioner’s lawyer stated that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa did not have full representation in the Senate at that time, as Senate elections were still pending there.
Advocate Salahuddin argued that the petition in Akhtar Mengal’s case had painted a picture of the conditions of amendments including how free assembly members were in voting. This should also be considered. Justice Ayesha Malik remarked that there was also non-implementation of decisions regarding reserved seats. Advocate Salahuddin submitted that a point regarding reserved seats was raised in the petition.
Advocate Salahuddin further argued that if the parliament was incomplete, how could the amendment be made? Meanwhile, lawyer Shahid Jamil stated that only the true representatives of the people have the constitutional authority to make amendments.
Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar asked if the petitioners wanted to wait for the decisions of the election cases before hearing the constitutional amendment case. He noted that in this manner, the constitutional amendment case would be delayed for a long time.
After initial hearing, the SC issued notices to the parties on the 26th Constitutional Amendment, the formation of a full court and the request to broadcast judicial proceedings live, and put off further hearing for three weeks.
