In a significant development, five judges of the Islamabad High Court on Saturday filed a miscellaneous application challenging the shifting of their intra-court appeal from the Supreme Court to the Federal Constitutional Court (FCC).

The application was submitted by Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani, Justice Babar Sattar, Justice Sardar Ejaz Ishaq Khan, Justice Saman Rafat Imtiaz and Justice Tariq Mehmood Jahangiri.

The dispute stems from the transfer of three judges from other high courts to the IHC.

In June, a Constitutional Bench of the Supreme Court ruled that the transfers were not unconstitutional.

The five IHC judges later filed an intra-court appeal against that decision.

However, the appeal has now been placed before the FCC, created under the 27th Constitutional Amendment, for a hearing scheduled on November 24.

In their fresh petition, the IHC judges asked the FCC to send the appeal back to the Supreme Court, arguing that the matter falls squarely within the apex court’s constitutional jurisdiction.

They contended that the appeal was moved to the FCC under the 27th Amendment, but maintained that the amendment itself is inconsistent with the Constitution and cannot be used to transfer the case.