ISLAMABAD: Tehreek-i-Tahafuz-i-Ayeen-i-Pakistan (TTAP) leader Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar on Monday announced he would challenge the Supreme Court (SC) registrar’s decision to return his petition seeking fixation of pending challenges to the 26th Constitutional Amendment before a full bench.
“This amounts to undermining and closing the doors of justice. Will file an appeal,” Khokhar posted on X.
The 26th Amendment curtails the SC’s suo motu powers, fixes the chief justice’s term at three years, and authorises a special parliamentary committee to nominate the next chief justice from among the three most senior judges.
Khokhar had filed his plea on September 4, invoking Article 184(3) of the Constitution to demand urgent fixation of the cases before a full bench, in line with an Oct 31, 2024, decision of the judges’ committee formed under the 2023 Practice and Procedure Act. The committee had directed that all challenges to the 26th Amendment be heard by the full court.
However, the SC registrar returned the plea in a September 19 notice issued to Khokhar’s advocate-on-record, Syed Rifaqat Hussain Shah. The registrar held that the petition failed to demonstrate how questions of public importance relating to fundamental rights were involved so as to justify invoking Article 184(3).
The notice added that Khokhar appeared to be seeking redress of an “individual grievance,” which was not permissible under the court’s extraordinary jurisdiction, citing the precedent of Zulfiqar Mehdi v. PIA (1998 SCMR 793).
It also observed that the petition contained multiple prayers and that the notice issued to respondents was not properly drawn.
Last month, Chief Justice Yahya Afridi disregarded the earlier judges’ committee decision to bring the amendment challenges before the full court.
Since October 2024, several petitions have been filed against the 26th Amendment, arguing that it abrogates the Constitution’s basic features and infringes upon fundamental rights.
