Constitution (Twenty-Sixth Amendment) Act, 2024

What it is

Parliament passed the Twenty-Sixth Amendment in October 2024. It was the most significant change to the judicature provisions of the Constitution in a decade. It reconstituted the Judicial Commission of Pakistan under Article 175A to include parliamentarians alongside judges, the federal law minister, the Attorney-General and a bar representative. It changed how the Chief Justice of Pakistan is appointed: a Special Parliamentary Committee now selects one of the three most senior Supreme Court judges, and the Chief Justice serves a fixed three-year term. It created constitutional benches in the Supreme Court (Article 191A) and permitted them in the high courts (Article 202A), routing constitutional jurisdiction — including petitions under Article 184(3) — to those benches. It also confined the Supreme Court's Article 184(3) power so that the Court may not grant relief beyond the contents of the application before it.

The Amendment made further changes beyond the courts. It inserted Article 9A, a fundamental right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment. It amended Article 38(f) to commit to the elimination of riba by 1 January 2028. It introduced annual performance evaluation of high court judges by the Judicial Commission. Several petitions challenging the vires of the Amendment were filed in the Supreme Court and remained pending before its constitutional bench through 2025 [current status TO BE VERIFIED BY REVIEWING LAWYER].

What changed

The landscape moved again in November 2025, when Parliament passed the Constitution (Twenty-Seventh Amendment) Act, 2025. That Amendment established a Federal Constitutional Court, which took over the constitutional jurisdiction the Twenty-Sixth Amendment had vested in the Supreme Court's constitutional benches. It also made further changes to judicial appointments and transfers, and amended Article 243 on command of the armed forces [the full scope of the Twenty-Seventh Amendment, and any transitional provisions governing pending constitutional-bench matters, TO BE VERIFIED BY REVIEWING LAWYER].

As of mid-2026, the Twenty-Sixth Amendment's provisions therefore stand in part: the reconstituted Judicial Commission, the parliamentary role in appointing the Chief Justice, the fixed tenure, Article 9A and the riba deadline remain, while the constitutional-bench structure it created has been superseded. Challenges to both Amendments were pending [forum and status TO BE VERIFIED BY REVIEWING LAWYER].

Who is affected

Any litigant raising a constitutional question is affected: petitioners under Article 184(3), parties challenging federal or provincial legislation, and businesses whose regulatory disputes turn on constitutional grounds. The forum, the bench and the appellate route for such matters have all changed since 2024, and changed again in 2025. Judges, court staff and counsel who practise in the writ and constitutional jurisdiction work under a different appointments and evaluation regime.

What to do

Before filing or pursuing any constitutional matter, confirm the correct forum as of the filing date — a petition that belonged before a constitutional bench in early 2025 may now belong before the Federal Constitutional Court. For pending matters, ask the registry where the case now stands and whether it has been transferred. Re-examine appeal routes and limitation before acting on pre-2024 assumptions. Where a matter's outcome depends on the validity of either Amendment, track the pending challenges and record that dependency in your case strategy [current cause lists and transfer orders TO BE VERIFIED BY REVIEWING LAWYER].