Constitutional Court to start with 'seven judges retiring at 68' under proposed 27th Amendment

• Proposal revived as part of broader constitutional reform package. 
• Proposal sets Constitutional Court judges' retirement age at 68.
• Proposed Constitutional Court to handle only constitutional matters. 

ISLAMABAD: The government has decided to establish a Constitutional Court under the proposed 27th Constitutional Amendment, initially comprising seven judges, in what officials sources describe as a major step toward reforming the country’s judicial structure.

According to the informed sources, the idea of setting up a Constitutional Court was originally part of the Charter of Democracy (CoD) signed between the Pakistan Peoples Party and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz in 2006.

The proposal has now been revived as part of the broader constitutional reform package under discussion between the coalition partners. 

As per the proposed plan, the retirement age of judges of the Constitutional Court will be 68 years, three years higher than that of the Supreme Court judges, who currently retire at 65. Justice Aminuddin Khan is likely to be appointed as the first Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court.

The court will not be housed in the Supreme Court building; instead, two options are under consideration for its location. 

One proposal suggests housing the court in the existing Islamabad High Court (IHC) building, and shifting the IHC back to its old premises in Sector G-10. 

The second, and reportedly more probable, option is to set up the Constitutional Court in the Federal Shariat Court (FSC) building. In that scenario, the Federal Service Tribunal (FST) would be relocated to one floor of the same building.

Sources said among the seven initial judges, five were likely to be selected from the current Supreme Court constitutional bench. In addition, some high court judges — particularly from the Balochistan High Court and Sindh High Court — are also being considered for elevation to the new court.

Officials said the proposed Constitutional Court would deal exclusively with the constitutional matters, helping reduce the Supreme Court’s workload and ensure faster adjudication of constitutional disputes — an idea long envisaged in the CoD but never implemented until now.

Originally published in The News