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LAHORE: A constitutional petition has been filed in the Lahore High Court (LHC) seeking the immediate operationalisation of constitutional benches under Article 202A of the Constitution.
The petition, filed by Azhar Siddique, chairman of the Judicial Activism Panel, a public interest litigation association, names the federation, the Law and Justice Commission of Pakistan, and the National Judicial (Policy-Making) Committee (NJPMC), among other federal and provincial authorities, as respondents.
The petitioner contends that despite the enactment of the 26th Amendment in 2024, constitutional benches have yet to be established in the Lahore, Islamabad, Peshawar, and Balochistan High Courts. To date, only the Sindh High Court has substantially implemented the framework envisaged under Article 202A. According to the petition, Article 202A uses mandatory language, stipulating that constitutional benches must be constituted and that only these specialised benches may exercise jurisdiction under Article 199.
The petitioner argues that the persistent failure to establish these benches has created an unequal, “two-track” system of constitutional justice. While litigants in Sindh have direct access to specialised constitutional benches, litigants in the rest of Pakistan must still have their constitutional cases heard by ordinary benches. Given the lack of any other effective or speedier remedy, the petitioner moved the LHC under its extraordinary constitutional jurisdiction in the public interest.
