PESHAWAR: The Supreme Court on Wednesday decided to set up larger bench to hear petitions challenging the 25th constitutional Amendment that allowed the merger of tribal districts (formerly FATA) with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in 2018.
A three-member bench of the apex court headed by Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial and comprising Justice Ayesha A Malik and Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar heard petitions challenging the 25th Amendment. The apex court said that the petitioners have raised the question over changing the constitutional status of federal units. “An important point in the case is what are the powers and limits of the parliament in amending the constitution,” the CJ said.
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Attorney General Khalid Javed Khan also said it was important to determine the extent to which parliament could amend the constitution. The Chief Justice inquired whether the FATA merged had affected the representation of the residents of the tribal areas in the Provincial and National Assemblies. The Attorney General responded that after the 25th Amendment, the main issue was the tribal districts representation in the National and Provincial Assemblies. He said all the FATA representatives had supported the 25th Amendment and that local jirgas had been consulted before the annexation of FATA.
Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar, a member of the bench, asked what was the real issue arising from KP-FATA merger? Justice Bandial said that the people of FATA have said that their culture is different from that of KP. The CJP added that people of tribal districts are saying that their separate identity has been abolished after the merger. Justice Ayesha Malik inquired whether the Parliament had sought the opinion of tribal people before merging the tribal districts in KP.
The Chief Justice sought detailed arguments all the questions raised during the hearing of the case and constituted larger bench to conduct hearing of all the cases related to KP-FATA merger after Ramadan.
During the hearing, the Attorney General also informed that Article 257 of the Constitution states that if a federating unit wants to remain an independent state, the opinion of the people should be sought.
Chief Justice Omar Ata Bandial said that democracy is a fundamental part of the constitution, adding that the purpose of the 25th amendment was to extend democracy to the tribal areas. During the hearing, the Advocate General of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa said that annulling the amendment made by Parliament would be beyond the power and authority of Supreme Court.