ISLAMABAD: As the Judicial Council of Pakistan (JCP) set to hold its first meeting today, two senior Supreme Court judges — Justice Mansoor Ali Shah and Justice Muneeb Akhtar — have expressed differences with Chief Justice Yahya Afridi over the fixation of petitions against the 26th Constitutional Amendment.
Supreme Court top judges have formally written the chief justice of Pakistan in which they regretted the failure to fix petitions against the 26th Constitutional Amendment, as per their decision taken during the meeting earlier on October 31, in the chamber of Justice Munib Akhtar.
The letter stated that both committee members resolved that petitions against the constitutional Amendments be fixed before the full court on November 4. The judges also directed the SC registrar to release the minutes of the Oct 31 meeting on the court’s website.
”As you are aware we, the undersigned members of the committee, under the Act, had on 31st October 2024, requested the convening of a meeting of the committee to urgently consider the fixation and hearing of the constitutional petitions challenging the recently enacted 26th Amendment to the Constitution. Keeping in view the urgency of the matter, we had asked for the meeting to be held at the earliest on that day itself,” the letter read.
“Despite intimation, the meeting was not convened, therefore, considering the urgency of the matter, we proceeded under s. 2(2) of the Act and held the requisitioned meeting of the committee on the same day.”
The letter further said, “The decision of the committee, which was promptly communicated on the same day and is binding and effective in terms of s2(3) of the Act, was that the constitutional petitions challenging the 26th Constitutional Amendment be placed before the Full Court (on the judicial side) and fixed for hearing on 4th November 2024.”
Considering the decision of the committee, top court judges requested the fixation of the aforementioned constitutional petitions before the Full Court positively during the current week, and for the cause list to be issued accordingly forthwith.
Several prominent lawyers’ organizations including the Balochistan Bar Council and the Balochistan High Court Bar Association, have filed separate petitions, requesting that the recently enacted amendment be declared unconstitutional.
Moreover, a former president of the Supreme Court Bar Association along with other lawyers jointly submitted a petition against the amendments, seeking the court to declare it null and void and contrary to the fundamental rights and constitutional structure.
