• President gives approval on PM Shehbaz’s advice.
• Justice Khan served as head of constitutional bench.
• Appointment comes after NA approves to SC Procedure Bill. 

ISLAMABAD: President Asif Ali Zardari has approved the appointment of Justice Aminuddin Khan as the first Chief Justice of the newly established Federal Constitutional Court.

President Zardari approved the appointment of Justice Aminuddin on the advice of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, read a statement.

Justice Khan was serving as the head of the now-dissolved constitutional bench. 

His appointment comes shortly after the National Assembly passed amendments to the Practice and Procedure Rules, paving the way for the cessation of the Constitutional Benches. The bill was passed by the lower house with a majority.

The changes were part of the government’s reforms in the judicial structure through the much-touted 27th Constitutional Amendment. 

The bill was initially presented in the upper house of parliament on Monday and got a nod on the same day. It was then referred to the NA, which approved it with some amendments. Therefore, the legislation was again presented in the Senate today to approve the latest changes. 

Supreme Court Practice, Procedure Bill, 2025

In today’s NA session, Law Minister Tarar introduced the Supreme Court Practice and Procedure (Amendment) Bill 2025. The law minister said the amendments were aimed at aligning the laws governing the judiciary with the 27th Amendment.

Under the tweaks, the government removed Clause 191-A related to the top court’s practice and procedure.

Under the new law, the authority to constitute benches for hearing cases has been vested in a three-member committee headed by the chief justice.

The committee will comprise the chief justice of the Supreme Court, the most senior judge, and a third judge nominated by the country’s top jurist.

In the absence of any member, the chief justice may nominate another judge to serve on the committee.

Decisions regarding the formation of benches by the committee will be made by a majority vote.

Who is Justice Khan?

Born to a noble family of a famous lawyer of the time, Advocate Khan Sadiq Muhammad Ahsan in Multan on December 1, 1960, Justice Khan received his education from a local school in the district, according to the Supreme Court’s website.

After completing his secondary school education in the year 1977 in Multan, he secured his Bachelor’s Degree in subjects of Philosophy in the year 1981 and completed his LLB from University Law College, Multan in 1984 and a diploma in Taxation Law.

Justice Khan started practice as a junior with his father and obtained the license to practice in the lower courts in the year 1985. He enrolled as an advocate of the Lahore High Court in 1987.

Some years later, he was enrolled as an Advocate of the Supreme Court in 2001. He joined a local firm in Multan in the year 2001, till elevation remained there.

He practiced in the civil side — mainly from the trial court up to the Supreme Court — and appeared in the Supreme Court in famous and important cases relating to property, pre-emption, and matters of inheritance. These subjects remained the favourite subjects.

In 2011, Justice Khan was appointed to the Lahore High Court bench, where he soon became noted for resolving long-standing civil cases efficiently. Presiding over cases at the Bahawalpur, Multan, and Lahore benches, he contributed a series of judgments that were frequently upheld by the Supreme Court.

He was elevated to the Supreme Court of Pakistan on October 21, 2019. Notable among Justice Khan’s recent judgments is his dissenting note in the July 12 reserved seats verdict. Justice Khan was also part of the nine-member larger bench that reviewed the presidential reference filed against the hanging of former prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.

He has also made substantial contributions to legal education, serving as an examiner and lecturer at University Law College, Multan. Additionally, he has held roles on the Syndicate of several universities, including the University of Engineering and Technology, Lahore.

• President gives assent to bill on PM’s advice.
• Assent given to bill after nod from both houses.
• Senate greenlights bill after changes by NA. 

ISLAMABAD: President Asif Ali Zardari on Thursday gave assent to the much-debated 27th Constitutional Amendment after approval from the Parliament.

With the president’s signature, the amendment has now officially become part of the Constitution.

“The Constitution (Twenty-Seventh Amendment) Bill, 2025 is assented to, as advised by the Prime Minister [Shehbaz Sharif], at Para-5 of the Summary,” read a notification issued by the President’s House. 

The development came moments after the Senate approved the amendment bill following changes approved by the National Assembly a day earlier, amid noisy protests by the opposition.

Federal Minister for Law Azam Nazeer Tarar presented the constitutional amendment bill today, with the tweaks to the draft earlier approved by the upper house. The amendment bill received 64 votes (two-thirds majority in the 96-member House) in favour and four against.

Senate Chairman Yousuf Raza Gilani announced the result, saying: “So the motion is carried by the votes of not less than two-thirds of the total membership of the Senate, and consequently, the bill stands passed.”

The much-touted bill was initially presented in the upper house of parliament on Monday and got a nod on the same day. It was then referred to the NA, which approved it with some amendments. Therefore, the legislation was again presented in the Senate today to approve the latest changes.

New tweaks

A day earlier, the National Assembly passed the amendment bill that seeks to change the judicial structure and military command, with 234 votes in favour and four against amid the opposition’s walkout. It included eight amendments — not part of the Senate-approved previous version — aimed at clarifying the chief justice’s position.

The amended bill fine-tunes the structure of the newly established Federal Constitutional Court (FCC), clarifies the titles and ranking of the country’s top judges, and drops several clauses from the Senate-approved draft that had sought to alter oath-related provisions for various constitutional offices.

One of the most significant updates relates to Clause 2, which modifies Article 6(2A) of the Constitution — the article concerning high treason. The National Assembly’s version adds the term “Federal Constitutional Court” after “the”, thereby explicitly including the new court within the ambit of Article 6. The earlier Senate draft had not mentioned the court by name.

The lower house also introduced a fresh Clause 2A to amend Article 10(4), which deals with preventive detention. This revision adds the words “Supreme Court” within the explanatory portion of that article.

Meanwhile, the National Assembly deleted several provisions that had appeared in the Senate’s version. Clauses 4, 19, 51, and 55 — which collectively proposed to modify the wording of oaths administered to a range of constitutional officeholders — were removed from the final text.

Clause 4 had aimed to revise Article 42, under which the president takes the oath of office before the Chief Justice of Pakistan, by substituting the phrase “Chief Justice of Pakistan” with “Chief Justice of the Federal Constitutional Court.”

Likewise, Clause 19 proposed changes to Article 168, which regulates the appointment and oath of the Auditor General of Pakistan. It would have added the term “Supreme Court” before “Chief Justice of Pakistan,” thereby slightly altering the formal oath text.

Clause 51 mirrored this approach for Article 214, which requires the Chief Election Commissioner to take the oath before the Chief Justice. The Senate draft suggested replacing this with “Chief Justice of the Federal Constitutional Court.”

Similarly, Clause 55 sought to amend Article 255(2), which applies in cases where an oath cannot be administered before the designated official. At present, the Chief Justice of Pakistan can nominate another person; the Senate version proposed transferring this authority to the Chief Justice of the Federal Constitutional Court.

All of these oath-related proposals were ultimately omitted by the National Assembly.

Another key modification came in Clause 23, which amends Article 176 to include a proviso specifying that, “notwithstanding anything contained in the Constitution, the incumbent Chief Justice shall continue to be known as the Chief Justice of Pakistan during his term in office.”

A further addition was made under Clause 56, which now defines the “Chief Justice of Pakistan” as “the senior among the Chief Justice of the Federal Constitutional Court and the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court,” thereby establishing a formal hierarchy between the two judicial heads.

The multi-clause amendment bill required a two-thirds majority in the 336-member House. The ruling coalition easily secured the required votes, with the PML-N holding 125 seats, the PPP 74, the MQM-P 22, the PML-Q four, the Istehkam-e-Pakistan Party four, and one seat each held by the PML-Z, the Balochistan Awami Party, and the National Peoples Party.

However, four members from the JUI-F, once a close ally of the ruling PML-N, were the only lawmakers to register their votes against the amendments.