ISLAMABAD: Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar, leader of Tehreek-e-Tahafuz-e-Ayin-e-Pakistan (TTAP), announced on Monday that he would challenge the Supreme Court registrar’s decision to return his petition seeking urgent hearings on challenges to the controversial 26th Constitutional Amendment before a full bench.
“This amounts to undermining and closing the doors of justice. I will file an appeal,” Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar declared in a post on X, after the Supreme Court returned his petition seeking enforcement of a majority committee’s decision to hear petitions challenging the 26th Constitutional Amendment before a full bench.
The 26th Amendment has sparked widespread legal and political debate, as it curtails the Supreme Court’s suo motu powers, limits the Chief Justice of Pakistan’s tenure to three years, and empowers a special parliamentary committee to nominate the next CJP from among the three most senior judges of the apex court.
On September 4, invoking Article 184(3) of the Constitution – which grants the Supreme Court inherent jurisdiction to enforce fundamental rights – Khokhar petitioned the court for immediate hearing of the pending petitions challenging the amendment.
These petitions, filed since October 2024, argue that the amendment undermines the Constitution’s basic structure and violates fundamental rights.
The plea also referenced an October 31, 2024 decision of the judges’ committee, formed under the Practice and Procedure Act 2023, mandating that these petitions be heard by a full bench.
However, on September 19, the Supreme Court registrar issued a notice to advocate Syed Rifaqat Hussain Shah, representing Khokhar, returning the petition.
The notice said that Khokhar had failed to demonstrate any public importance or fundamental rights issue warranting the invocation of the court’s extraordinary jurisdiction under Article 184(3).
It further remarked that the petition appeared to seek redress for an individual grievance, which previous court rulings have deemed impermissible under this jurisdiction.
The registrar’s notice also criticized the petition for containing multiple prayers and lacking clarity regarding its precise purpose before the court.
Last month, Chief Justice Yahya Afridi reportedly declined to enforce a judges’ committee recommendation to refer challenges to the 26th Amendment to a full bench, raising concerns about the thoroughness of judicial review.
Since the amendment’s passage, multiple petitions have contested its constitutionality, arguing that it “abrogates, repeals, alters and destroys the basic features of the Constitution” and violates fundamental rights, intensifying a high-stakes legal battle.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2025
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