Constitutional bench gets to business

The first ever constitutional bench of the Supreme Court would start hearing cases on Thursday (today), taking up a 31-year-old case related to the environmental pollution, according to the cause list issued here on Wednesday.

A six-member constitutional bench led by Justice Aminuddin Khan and including Jamal Khan Mandokhail, Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar, Justice Hasan Azhar Rizvi, Justice Musarrat Hilali and Justice Naeem Akhtar Afghan, would hear 18 constitutional cases on Thursday and 16 constitutional cases on Friday.

Thursday would mark the first ever hearing to be conducted by the constitutional bench, which has been created through the 26th Constitutional Amendment, passed by parliament recently. After the amendment, the Judicial Commission appointed Justice Aminuddin Khan as head of the bench.

Incidentally, the first three cases to be heard by the bench were all related to environment. The first one is about environmental pollution and human rights, filed in 1993. The second case is also related to environmental pollution, filed 2003, and the third case is pending since 2016.

Besides, there are some inconsequential cases on the roster such as the review of the decision on a plea against the direct appointment of Qazi Faez Isa as the chief justice of the Balochistan High Court (BHC) and the plea for the removal of former president Arif Alvi from the office.

Other such cases are related to the appointment of deputy commissioner of Karachi, a request for rescheduling the general elections 2024, which would also be taken up along with a 2012 narcotics-related case and a revision case of All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA).

On the legal issues, the bench would take up the review of judgments case, a petition to declare null and void all those laws passed during the previous Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) government, which came to power in April 2022.

A petition had also been fixed for hearing that sought the disqualification of assembly members, who had business and assets abroad, while another petition, seeking a ban on the marriage of government officials with foreigners, had also been scheduled for hearing.

On Friday (tomorrow) the same bench would take up the cases, including a suo motu notice taken in 2018 regarding the foreign accounts of the Pakistani citizens, and 24-year-old petition filed under Article 184-3 of the Constitution for implementation of taxes in the northern regions.

Other cases to be taken up include a suo motu case about the use of Convention Centre, a decision of the Lahore High Court on terrorism, Lady Health Workers Programme and a petition filed by Khawaja Asif.