Tehreek-i-Tahaffuz Ayeen-i-Pakistan (TTAP) Vice Chairman Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar on Thursday filed an appeal against the Supreme Court (SC) registrar’s decision to return his petition seeking a full court hearing of challenges against the 26th Constitutional Amendment.
The 26th Amendment, passed on Oct 21, 2024, took away the SC’s suo motu powers and empowered a Special Parliamentary Committee to nominate the next chief justice of Pakistan (CJP) from among the three most senior SC judges instead of the senior-most one.
The SC is currently seized with multiple petitions urging the constitution of a full court to hear the matter rather than the Constitutional Bench (CB) formed under the 26th Amendment. The CB is set to resume proceedings on the original appeals on October 7 (Tuesday).
“I’ve filed an appeal against the registrar’s decision to return my petition, seeking justice once again. My petition argues that the majority decision of the Practice & Procedure Committee remains valid in law and cases related to the 26th should only be heard by a full court,” Khokhar said on X.
The appeal, filed through Advocate Shahid Jamil Khan, requested the SC to set aside the September 19 decision and “register and entertain the said petition in accordance with law”. The plea was filed under Rule 3 of the Supreme Court Rules and named the apex court’s registrar office as a respondent.
The appeal contended that the registrar had “no jurisdiction to determine the maintainability or entertainability of a petition under Article 184(3), as such questions can only be decided by this Hon’ble Court in exercise of its judicial authority”.