Pak: Lahore HC Bar challenges 26th Constitutional Amendment

Hamid Khan, the Senior Vice-President of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf has filed a petition of the LHC Bar in the Supreme Court seeking the court to declare various clauses of the 26th Amendment as unconstitutional, as per ARY News.

Hamid Khan pleaded to the court to declare sections 7,9,10,12,13,14, and sections 16,17 and 21 as unconstitutional. He also requested the court to declare the steps taken under various sections of the 26th constitutional amendment as unconstitutional, ARY News stated.

Hamid Khan also pleaded to the court that the judicial commission and other steps should be restrained until the petition has been pending.

As per ARY News, the federation, judicial commission, the National Assembly, Senate, Speaker National Assembly and the President were made respondents in the petition.

Lawyers' leader Hamid Khan said that bringing back the constitution to its actual shape has been the biggest issue in the Supreme Court Bar election, ARY News reported on Tuesday.

A lawyer said that they considered the 26th Amendment the biggest attack on the constitution.

On a media question if the lawyers will accept the 26th Amendment, Hamid Khan told ARY News, "We consider the 26th Amendment the biggest attack on the constitution that has unsettled the judicial system."

The election of the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) was underway on Tuesday, as per ARY News.

He said it is compulsory for the lawyers to launch a campaign against the 26th Amendment and with utmost effort remove it to give independence to the judiciary.

The polling for the elections of SCBA is underway to elect the central office bearers as well as Vice Presidents and executive members from provinces, ARY News reported.

As per ARY News, over 4,000 voters will be casting their votes in the SCBA elections, among them the largest number of voters, 1,414 voters are from Lahore, 516 from Karachi and 372 from Peshawar, as per ARY News.

Under the constitutional amendment, the term for the Chief Justice of Pakistan has been set at three years. A 12-member parliamentary committee will nominate the new Chief Justice of Pakistan from a panel of the three most senior judges, ARY News reported.

As per the report, the committee, comprising eight members from the National Assembly and four from the Senate, will propose the name to the Prime Minister, who will then forward it to the President for final approval.

A Judicial Commission of Pakistan, led by the Chief Justice and including three senior judges, two members each from the National Assembly and Senate, the Federal Minister for Law and Justice, the Attorney General, and a nominee of the Pakistan Bar Council, having not less than fifteen years of practice in the Supreme Court, will be responsible for appointments of the judges of the Supreme Court, as per ARY News. (ANI)