Three-judge bench set to begin preliminary hearing. PHOTO: APP
The Supreme Court on Thursday said it would begin hearing the Lahore High Court Bar Association’s (LHCBA) plea against the setting up of military courts through the 21st constitutional amendment on January 28.
A three-judge bench, headed by Chief Justice Nasirul Mulk, will take up the Lahore bar body’s plea for preliminary hearing, with senior lawyer Hamid Khan and Shafqat Chohan arguing the case.
Earlier, a general house meeting of the LHCBA on January 14 allowed its elected leadership to challenge the 21st constitutional amendment before the apex court. LHCBA secretary Mian Ahmad Chachar presented a resolution before the house that was passed unanimously.
The LHCBA is also organising a second All Pakistan Lawyers Representative Convention on January 28 on the same issue.
Talking to The Express Tribune, former Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) president Yasin Azan welcomed the court’s decision to fix the pleas against the establishment of military courts.
He pointed out that Pakistan Bar Council (PBC) has already summoned its special meeting on January 27 to decide whether they should directly move a plea to the SC against the setting up of military courts.
“I will strongly stress the superior bars in the upcoming meeting that we should approach the apex court against the new constitutional amendment as it has destroyed the basic structure of the constitution,” maintained Yasin Azan.
He recalled that in 1999, the top court’s nine-judge bench had issued a verdict against the establishment of military courts in the Sheikh Liaquat case.
After the preliminary hearing, the chief justice is expected to constitute a larger bench or a full court to hear LHCBA’s plea, the ex-SCBA president said.
An insider, however, said though the PBC and the SCBA representatives are opposed to the constitution of military courts they are divided over the filing of the petition against the 21st amendment. This means there is a slim chance that both the superior bars will challenge it.
The LHCBA through its secretary has filed the petition under Article 184(3) of the Constitution, making the federal government and all the provincial governments as respondents.
The bar has requested that the 21st constitutional amendment be struck down, since it is tantamount to “a violation of the basic structure and features of the Constitution itself”.
The petition claims that the constitutional amendment effectively “abrogates and takes away the fundamental rights of the people of Pakistan guaranteed by Chapter I of Part II of the Constitution and consequently cannot be allowed to remain a part of text of the 1973 Constitution”.
It argues that the very concept of civilian citizens of this country being tried by special military courts is “simply shocking and absurd” and is actually an invasion over the authority of the judiciary as a whole, the same therefore, cannot be allowed to sustain”.
“It is an undeniable fact and has repeatedly been held by the SC that the parliament’s power to amend the Constitution is neither unlimited nor unbridled and therefore, it cannot pass an amendment in the Constitution which abrogates or takes away the fundamental rights of its citizens.”
Published in The Express Tribune, January 23rd, 2015.
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