27th Amendment: SC Registrar’s Office says petitions can be filed before FCC

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court Registrar’s Office declined to receive a petition against the 27th Constitutional Amendment, saying such petitions can be filed before the Federal Constitutional Court. Former judge of the Lahore High Court, Shabbir Raza Rizvi, on Friday approached the Supreme Court to file a petition challenging the 27th Amendment. In the petition, he argued that Pakistan’s Constitution was framed by the Constituent Assembly, which had declared the Supreme Court the highest court under the 1973 Constitution. Therefore, the scheme of the judicial system introduced by the Constituent Assembly cannot be altered by the present Parliament. Thus, the present Supreme Court is the only constitutional court in Pakistan. He further contended that the Supreme Court always has inherent jurisdiction to interpret the vires of the impugned enactment (27th Amendment), even if it excludes its jurisdiction. The petition maintained that the current assembly could not be considered a Constituent Assembly. Thus, it cannot tamper with the Constitution’s salient features/basic structure/basic framework as it would amount to abrogating/subverting the impugned provisions of the Constitution, in the guise of amendments. The amendments contained in the Constitutional (27th Amendment) Act, 2025 could only be done by a new Constituent Assembly. The petitioner argued that independence of the judiciary is one of the salient features of the Constitution, expressly provided by the founders of the Constitution, and it was upheld by the Supreme Court in several judgments. The dream of democracy shall remain unfulfilled as provided in the Constitution, unless judicial independence is ensured and adhered to. It further argued that granting lifetime immunity to any individual was not permissible in an Islamic state, while judicial independence was directly linked to the appointment of judges. The petition claimed that the 27th Amendment had effectively violated the Constitution. The petitioner requested the Supreme Court to declare the 27th Constitutional Amendment null and void and also strike down the lifetime immunity granted under Article 248. The Supreme Court Registrar’s Office had previously also refused to receive another petition challenging the 27th Constitutional Amendment. He submitted that impugned Act/A mendments in many Articles of the Constitution, particularly, in Article 6, 175, 175A, 175E, 200, 206, 248 and 260 amount to ‘abrogation’, ‘subversion’ and ‘destruction’ of the Constitution and the judicial system of the country. Copyright Business Recorder, 2026

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