Supreme Court (SC) on Wednesday admitted a plea for hearing filed by advocate Zulfiqar Ahmed Bhutta. He urged the court to declare sub-Article 5 of amended Article 239 void terming it against the preamble of the Constitution of Pakistan. Sub-Article 5 of Article 239 states, "No amendment of the Constitution shall be called in question in any court on any ground whatsoever". Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan admitted the petition after dismissing the Registrar's objections dated 3 June, 2015 on its maintainability while hearing the appeal in his chamber.
Bhutta filed the petition under Article 184(3) of the Constitution making the federation through Secretary Law, Justice & Parliamentary Affairs respondent. The petitioner submitted that the constitutional provisions emphasised loyalty to the state as the basic duty of every citizen, and a portion of the 18th Amendment is against the basic structure of the Constitution where it stipulates that "the independence of the judiciary shall be fully secured".
He said the preamble is a roadmap for further construction of the Constitution and bars Parliament from going beyond the roadmap of the Constitution. Bhutta submitted: "circumstances in the world are quite different than those existing in Pakistan - nobody can deny the fact that Pakistan is perhaps the only country of the world wherein people having a history of criminal litigation against them became President and Prime Minister of Pakistan."
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