By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: Five judges from the Islamabad High Court filed a petition on Saturday asking the new Federal Constitutional Court to send their appeal back to the Supreme Court, contending that a recent constitutional amendment improperly shifted jurisdiction over the case.
The miscellaneous application, submitted by Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani, Justice Babar Sattar, Justice Sardar Ejaz Ishaq Khan, Justice Saman Rafat Imtiaz and Justice Tariq Mehmood Jahangiri, argues that the 27th Amendment, which created the Federal Constitutional Court, contradicts the Constitution and cannot be used to redirect their intra-court appeal.
The dispute traces to a June ruling by a Supreme Court constitutional bench, which found the transfers of three judges from other high courts to the federal capital were not unconstitutional. The five Islamabad High Court judges then challenged that decision through an intra-court appeal, which has now been set for hearing before the Federal Constitutional Court on Nov. 24.
In the petition, the judges said Parliament’s power to amend the Constitution is not unlimited. “The Constitution clearly outlined the legislature, executive, and judiciary as the three essential pillars of the state and delineated limits and powers for each,” the application states. It adds that such authority “could not be exercised to abolish, restructure, or fundamentally weaken the judiciary, which forms an integral component of the constitutional framework.”
Citing several Supreme Court judgments on the separation of powers and judicial independence, the judges maintained that appellate jurisdiction in these matters “remained with the SC unless expressly provided otherwise without affecting the judiciary’s constitutional existence. “The filing calls the transfer of the appeal “legally flawed” because the 27th Amendment is itself challenged as inconsistent with the Constitution’s basic structure. The Federal Constitutional Court must now decide whether to hear the appeal or return it to the Supreme Court.
The move comes after four of the judges — excluding Justice Jahangiri — tried earlier this week to contest the 27th Amendment directly at the Supreme Court under Article 184(3). They sent a draft petition to the registry but were instructed to approach the Federal Constitutional Court. That draft also targeted changes to Article 200, which allow high court judge transfers without consent. The judges argued that these rules “exposed judges to pressure, fear of retaliation, and manipulation of court composition.”
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