Reporting snapshot · 9 October 2026 (Asia/Karachi). The fixations are reported on the basis of a same-day Express Tribune dispatch from Islamabad and The Nation's separate filing today on an FCC pension ruling, which confirms the FCC is hearing cases on the day of publication. KhabarWire has not seen the FCC cause lists or the petitions themselves.
What the FCC fixed
The Federal Constitutional Court (FCC) has set two politically significant PTI-linked petitions for hearing next week, The Express Tribune reported from Islamabad on 9 October. A two-member bench headed by Chief Justice of the Federal Constitutional Court Amin-ud-Din Khan, with Justice Ali Baqar Najafi as the second judge, will hear:
- Bushra Bibi’s plea seeking suspension of her sentence in the Al-Qadir Trust case, fixed for 14 October.
- Sher Afzal Marwat’s petition challenging the election of Sohail Afridi as Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chief minister, fixed for 15 October.
The Tribune reports that the FCC is expected to issue notices to the respondents on 14 October in the Bushra matter, with arguments to follow once pleadings are exchanged.
The two fixations come one day after the FCC also issued a separate ruling in an Employees’ Old-Age Benefits Institution case, reported by The Nation, confirming the FCC is functioning as an operational appellate forum in Islamabad on the date of publication. Chief Justice Amin-ud-Din Khan previously authored the FCC’s 16 June 2026 Section 7E judgment on property tax.
Why the cases reached the FCC
Both petitions arrived at the FCC after the Supreme Court said in July 2026 that it could no longer hear bail applications in pending National Accountability Bureau appeals. As a result, pending criminal appeals previously filed in the Supreme Court were transferred to the FCC under the 27th Amendment.
The FCC was established under the 27th Amendment, passed earlier in 2026 by the PML-N-led ruling coalition. The amendment, as previously covered by KhabarWire, gave the FCC equal provincial representation, suo motu powers and the authority to hear constitutional matters, with bench-formation power transferred to a three-member committee headed by the chief justice.
The redistribution means the bench considering Bushra Bibi’s plea and Sohail Afridi’s election challenge is sitting under the FCC’s 27th Amendment framework rather than the older Supreme Court appellate framework.
The Bushra Bibi sentence-suspension plea
Bushra Bibi, the wife of PTI founder Imran Khan, was convicted by an accountability court in the Al-Qadir Trust case, a reference sent back by the Supreme Court in 2023 after the original conviction was overturned. She filed the plea through her counsel Salman Safdar, arguing before the FCC that she is entitled to suspension of her sentence as a woman with a serious medical condition, citing the first proviso to Section 497(1) of the Code of Criminal Procedure.
The Islamabad High Court had earlier disposed of applications by both Imran Khan and Bushra Bibi seeking suspension of their sentences without deciding the matter on the merits, and Bushra Bibi filed the appeal days after the Supreme Court’s 24 July ruling that it could not hear bail applications in pending NAB appeals.
The suspension plea is distinct from the underlying conviction appeal. Even if the FCC grants suspension, the Al-Qadir Trust conviction itself remains under challenge in the substantive appeals transferred to the FCC. The 14 October hearing will likely focus narrowly on the medical-grounds suspension question.
The Marwat challenge to Sohail Afridi’s election
The Marwat petition is more directly political. Filed under Article 175(E) of the Constitution, it seeks a declaration that the resignation letters submitted by Ali Amin Gandapur on 8 and 11 October 2025 were made under the alleged unconstitutional direction of a convicted and disqualified person (Imran Khan) and therefore lacked legal effect.
The petition argues that a person constitutionally disqualified under Articles 62 and 63 cannot exercise control over state functionaries or issue binding political directives, and that Sohail Afridi’s succession as KP chief minister should therefore be declared unlawful.
The Tribune notes that the FCC took up Marwat’s petition on 14 September and issued notices to all respondents, including the Attorney General for Pakistan, but did not issue notice to the KP advocate general. The 15 October hearing will be the first substantive hearing.
The case comes against the backdrop of a separate KP confrontation that has run throughout October, including the federal government’s reported consideration of constitutional measures for the province and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s warning that any May-9-style unrest will be dealt with decisively.
Bench composition under the 27th Amendment
The bench — Chief Justice Amin-ud-Din Khan and Justice Ali Baqar Najafi — will be the first two-member FCC bench to hear such politically charged matters. Under the amendment, bench composition is decided by the FCC’s own practice rules rather than by the Supreme Court chief justice as previously. Sohail Afridi has previously appeared in FCC proceedings as a respondent, in the earlier petition over the proposed “release force” for Imran Khan.
The bench’s choices will matter: the FCC is still developing its working methods following its 2026 establishment, and the appellate review of pending NAB cases against high-profile politicians was one of the more politically charged rationales for the amendment itself.
Why it matters
The two hearings crystallise three pressures that have built up over the past quarter.
First, the FCC’s jurisdiction is being tested in real time. The court was set up to hear pending appeals the Supreme Court said it could no longer entertain. How it handles Bushra’s sentence and the KP succession dispute will shape how the rest of the transferred backlog is processed.
Second, the medical-grounds suspension route is the last realistic chance for Bushra Bibi to leave prison before the substantive Al-Qadir Trust appeals conclude. Suspension does not overturn the conviction, but it allows time outside detention.
Third, the Marwat challenge has implications for the present KP administration. A declaration that Sohail Afridi’s election was constitutionally tainted would reopen the KP succession dispute.
What is still uncertain
Several elements are provisional. The FCC’s official cause list for 14 and 15 October has not been independently verified. It is not known whether the bench that fixes the cases will remain the bench that hears them. The substantive Al-Qadir Trust appeals remain pending before the FCC and could take months.
The Tribune’s framing of the Marwat petition rests on the petition’s own pleadings; the federal government’s reply and the KP advocate general’s response have not yet been reported. The medical evidence underpinning Bushra’s suspension plea has not been made public. The 27th Amendment that created the FCC remains contested: it prompted judicial resignations at the Supreme Court, and constitutional petitions challenging it are pending.
Sources & reporting notes
This is a synthesis of published reporting, not courtroom reporting. Sources were reviewed on 9 October 2026 (Asia/Karachi). The account draws primarily on The Express Tribune's same-day filing by Hasnaat Malik from Islamabad, supplemented by The Nation's same-day report on the FCC's pension ruling and by earlier KhabarWire coverage of the FCC, the Al-Qadir Trust case, the 27th Amendment and the Supreme Court's July 2026 bail ruling. KhabarWire has not read the FCC cause lists, the petitions or the bench's earlier orders.
- The Express Tribune — FCC sets key PTI cases for hearing: Bushra sentence plea, Afridi election challenge fixedPublished 9 October 2026 by Hasnaat Malik in Islamabad · Independent report: the 14 and 15 October fixations by Justice Aminuddin Khan and Justice Ali Baqar Najafi, the Bushra plea under Section 497(1) CrPC, and the Article 175(E) framing of Marwat's petition.
- The Nation — EOBI pension cannot be granted without fulfilling legal requirements: FCCPPublished 9 October 2026 from Islamabad · Independent confirmation that the Federal Constitutional Court of Pakistan is hearing cases and issuing rulings on 9 October 2026.
- The News International — 27th Amendment empowers FCC to hear all constitutional cases: ministerPublished 21 November 2025 · Context: how the 27th Amendment vested authority to hear constitutional matters in the Federal Constitutional Court and set up the appellate transfer described in the 9 October Tribune report.
- The Express Tribune — SC bars forced conversion of dissolution pleas into khulaPublished 7 October 2026 · Context: a separate Supreme Court judgment earlier this week, referenced here only for the wider federal-judiciary backdrop.
