Supreme Court dismisses pleas challenging 26th constitutional amendments

**ISLAMABAD:** The Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed petitions challenging the 26th proposed constitutional amendments after the petitioners requested their withdrawal.

The government's highly debated constitutional package seeks to establish a federal constitutional court and limit the Chief Justice of Pakistan's (CJP) tenure to three years.

A three-member bench, led by Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa and including Justice Naeem Akhtar Afghan and Justice Shahid Bilal Hassan, heard the joint petition. The case had been filed by Abid S. Zubairi, former president of the Supreme Court Bar Association and a current member of the Pakistan Bar Council, along with other council members.

During the hearing, lawyer Hamid Khan, representing the petitioners, requested the withdrawal of the petitions. This prompted the CJP to express surprise, questioning whether Hamid Khan, a prominent leader of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), was hired solely to withdraw the case.

“Abid Zubairi himself could have withdrawn the petition [...] Six lawyers filed the case; they could have appeared personally to withdraw it,” the CJP remarked.

The top judge also clarified that two cases were scheduled for hearing: the main petition and another challenging the objections raised against it. Hamid Khan confirmed that the petitioners wished to withdraw both.

The petition, originally filed on September 16 under Article 184(3) of the Constitution, sought to have the proposed amendments declared unconstitutional. The petitioners argued that the amendments violated the basic principles of the Constitution, including the separation of powers, judicial independence, and the enforcement of fundamental rights, which they contended were beyond Parliament's authority to alter.

Additionally, the petitioners requested the court to issue an injunction preventing the government from presenting the bill in Parliament, suspending its operation, and blocking its enactment even if passed by both houses.

Multiple other petitioners had similarly challenged the constitutional amendments in the Supreme Court, arguing that the proposed changes violated the Constitution’s core framework. Similar challenges were also filed in various high courts across the country.

The withdrawal of the petitions came just a day after major political parties — the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) — reached a consensus on the proposed amendments.