The need felt by the government for further tweaks to the 27th Amendment, which led to its having to go back to the Senate for passage again, shows the sort of haste with which the Act was passed. That the government will face procedural challenges can be seen from the claim by PTI chairman Gohar Ali Khan that the party has expelled the party’s sole floorcrosser. Though the offending Senator has not resigned, and remains listed by the Senate website as a member, grounds have come been created for challenging the passage of the amendment. Though the courts have usually hesitated to take up such procedural challenges, unless the government can come up with another floorcrosser, there may be problems. One of the amendments in the National Assembly best symbolzes what the government has tried to do: the Chief Justice of Pakistan will be that chief justice of the Supreme Court or the new Federal Constitutional Court who shall be senior. The stage has been set for a Chief Justice of the Supreme Court who will not be Chief Justice of Pakistan. Even where the Chief Justice of the Supreme is Chief Justice of Pakistan, he will be bound, like his brother judges, by the verdicts of the Constitutional Court. In short, the Supreme Court will no longer be supreme, and this has agitated not just the opposition but also the legal fraternity.
The leader of the Anjuman Tahaffuz Ain Pakistan, and the PTI’s nominee to replace the disqualified Umar Ayub as National Assembly Opposition Leader, Mahmood Achackzai told the government after the passage of the Bill by the National Assembly, “we will make your life miserable.” He was primarily speaking about the movement which the opposition plans to launch from Friday, but the Opposition can also make things pretty hot in the House if it puts its mind to it.
The PTI argues that the basic structure of the Constitution has been violated, because the judiciary is no longer free. The Supreme Court is supposed to defend the Constitution, but then so does the Constitutional Court. Which has jurisdiction. This is the issue facing the SC Constitutional Bench hearing the 26th Amendment case. That too has been challenged as violating the Constitution’s basic structure, but has not attained a decision. Though it may now never be decided as infructuous, the arguments and concepts raised in it are likely to inform the apparently inevitable court proceedings over this 27th Amendment.
