Islamabad: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founding leader Akbar Sher Babar has urged the Chief Justice of the Federal Constitutional Court Justice Aminuddin Khan to take up his petition filed in February this year that challenges the appointment of the Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly
In a statement he said 'We filed our constitutional petition in February 2026 on the same basis of Supreme Court judgment (PLD 2018, page 370) that is now being relied upon to hear a petition against the Chief Minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa,'. He questioned why the petition, which was filed several months earlier, has not yet been scheduled for hearing, while another petition was found maintainable on the basis of the same Supreme Court judgment. 'My lawyer, Justice (retd.) Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui, has already filed a response to the preliminary objections raised by the Registrar of the Federal Constitutional Court,' he pointed out.
Sharing details, he said that the Federal Constitutional Court had already ruled that the Registrar was not authorized to raise objections to a constitutional petition, as that authority rests solely with the court. 'Justice demands similar treatment to our petition,' he said.
On February 24, 2026, Babar, through his lawyer Justice (retd.) Shaukat Aziz, had filed a petition before the Federal Constitutional Court challenging the appointment of Mahmood Khan Achakzai as Leader of the Opposition.
The petition requested the Federal Constitutional Court to annul the notification issued on January 16, 2026, under which Mahmood Khan Achakzai was declared Leader of the Opposition.
The petitioner maintains that the Speaker of the National Assembly failed to fulfill the mandatory responsibility imposed under Rule 39(3) of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the National Assembly.
Under this rule, it is mandatory to independently verify the authenticity of the signatures of the members of Parliament supporting the nomination, as well as their consent.
Now that a petition on similar grounds has been accepted for hearing, he hopes that the constitutional petition challenging the appointment of the leader of the opposition would also be heard before the apex court.