SC to constitute larger bench for 25th Amendment hearing

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Wednesday decided to constitute a larger bench for hearing a petition challenging the 25th Constitutional Amendment, ARY News reported.

A three-member bench of the apex court headed by Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial was hearing a petition against merger of FATA with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

“A larger bench of the supreme court will hear the case after Ramadan,” the bench announced.

The 25th Amendment was passed by the Parliament in May 2018.

“The petitioners have raised the point in the constitution that the status of a federating unit could not be changed,” the court observed.

“The parliament have what powers and limitations over amending the constitution,” the bench posed question. “It is necessary to determine the extent to which the parliament could amend the constitution,” Attorney General Khalid Javed said.

“A major issue was the seats of the national and provincial assemblies in the constitutional amendment. FATA representatives had supported the 25th Constitutional Amendment,” AG said.

“The tribal Jirga of the region was also consulted before the merger,” Attorney General said.

The constitutional petition was filed by the elders of the former tribal areas through Barrister Wasim Sajjad challenging the merger of their area to KP province.

The federal government and the provincial government Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa had raised objections over the petition.