The Supreme Court dismissed petitions on Thursday challenging the 26th proposed constitutional amendments after the petitioners sought withdrawal.
The government’s much-talked-about constitutional package aims, among other things, to establish a federal constitutional court and set a three-year tenure for the Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP).
A three-member bench of the Supreme Court, headed by Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa and comprising Justice Naeem Akhtar Afghan and Justice Shahid Bilal Hassan, heard the joint petition.
The petition was filed by former president of the Supreme Court Bar Association and current member of the Pakistan Bar Council, Abid S Zubairi, along with other council members, against the proposed constitutional amendments.
During the hearing, lawyer Hamid Khan requested the bench to withdraw the petitions. At this, the CJP wondered whether the petitioners had only hired Hamid, a leader of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), to withdraw their pleas.
“Abid Zubairi could have withdrawn the petition himself […] Six lawyers had filed the petition; they could have appeared before the court themselves to withdraw it,” the top judge said.
The CJP then told the lawyer that two cases — the main petition and the plea against the objections to the petition — had been fixed for hearing.
The lawyer said that his clients wanted to withdraw all the pleas.
Zubairi, along with other Pakistan Bar Council members, had filed the petition in the apex court under Article 184(3) of the Constitution on September 16.
