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SC adjourns hearing 18th Amendment case
ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court today adjourned hearing a number of identical pleas challenging certain provisions of 18th Amendment, particularly the formation of a judicial commission for the appointment of senior judges, Geo News reported Monday.Hamid Khan, the counsel for the Supreme Court Bar Association today started the court proceedings with his arguments before a 17-member larger SC’s bench headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry and comprising Justice Javed Iqbal, Justice Mian Shakirullah Jan, Justice Tassaduq Hussain Jillani, Justice Nasir-ul-Mulk, Justice Raja Fayyaz Ahmed, Justice Muhammad Sair Ali, Justice Mahmood Akhtar Shahid Siddiqui, Justice Jawad S. Khawaja, Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali, Justice Khilji Arif Hussain, Justice Rahmat Hussain Jafferi, Justice Tariq Parvez, Justice Mian Saqib Nisar, Justice Asif Saeed Khan Khosa, Justice Ghulam Rabbani and Justice Khalil-ur-Rehman Ramday.
Hamid Khan said in his arguments the parliament is a pillar of the state, adding hence, the Parliament being a part to the state, should function by abiding by its constitutional limits.
He added petitions filed against Eighteenth Amendment are not aimed at weakening the parliament.
He said the bar Associations do not challenge the Parliament’s power to amend.
Justice Khalilur Rehman Ramday said, ‘Thanks God that our ministers and bureaucrats are honest and angels. The fault lies only with the judges; hence, they must be corrected.'
The same bench will also hear the federation’s plea seeking review a verdict declared on December 16, 2009 against the NRO. The attorney general of Pakistan and advocates general of all four provinces will appear before the court.
As many as 16 petitions have been filed before the Supreme Court against several provisions of the 18th Amendment. The petitioners contended that the formation of the judicial commission under the Amendment was against the basic structure of the constitution and independence of judiciary.
Muhammad Akram Sheikh, the counsel for one of the petitioners, Nadeem Ahmed, has already completed his arguments.
In his arguments during the last hearing, Sheikh said, “It is a universal principle all over the world that the parliament’s right of amendment is different from the right to re-write or re-phrase the constitution”.
PML-Zia President Ijazul Haq has challenged various clauses of the 18th Amendment, requesting that the court declare them illegal and unconstitutional. He has also challenged the renaming of the North West Frontier Province as Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
The NRO verdict review case has been adjourned till Wednesday. And the hearing for petitions relating the 18th Amendment has been adjourned till tomorrow.
Courtesy www.Geo.tv