ISLAMBAD, The government plans to put up for a vote a controversial constitutional amendment bill that proposes right to appeal against an order of the Supreme Court passed in suo motu notice during the current session of the National Assembly.

The Constitution (24th Amendment) Bill was tabled before the house in November last year. In January, the NA Standing Committee on Law and Justice passed it with a majority vote and referred it back to the house for a vote.

The bill was introduced at a time (on November 18, 2016) when the Supreme Court was hearing the Panamagate case under Article 184 (original jurisdiction of the Supreme Court) of the Constitution.

The 24th Amendment bill suggests adding two new clauses — 184 (4) and 184 (5) — to Article 184.

The clauses propose that anyone aggrieved by an order passed by the Supreme Court under Clause (3) of Article 184 (suo motu case) could file an appeal in the Supreme Court and such appeals would be heard by a bench larger than the bench that passes the order.

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Currently, the Constitution does not provide right to appeal in suo motu cases. The only remedy available to aggrieved persons under Article 184(3) is a review petition and that, too, is heard by the same bench that passed the order earlier.

In September 2017, the Supreme Court had dismissed a similar review petition filed by the Sharif family against the Panamagate verdict. The review petition was heard by the same bench that originally announced its verdict in the case.

PTI MNA Dr Arif Alvi told that the government had decided to bring this bill to the house during current session.

“It’s mafia-isation of the Constitution of Pakistan. It will be opposed strongly,” Alvi said, adding the current government had a history of passing person-specific legislations in a bid to ease pressure on ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif.

“In the name of electoral reforms, the PML-N managed to get a clean chit fraudulently from parliament to elect a disqualified person to head a political party,” Alvi said, adding, “The 24th amendment bill is in continuation of such person-specific legislations done in the recent past.”