'A grave assault on Constitution': Two Pakistan Supreme Court judges resign after 27th Amendment enacted as Law

Two Pakistan Supreme Court Judges, Justice Mansoor Ali Shah and Ather Minallah, put in their resignations hours after the controversial 27th constitutional amendment was enacted as law following President Asif Ali Zaradari's assent on Thursday (13 Nov). The bill was passed by the Senate, the upper house of parliament, on 10 November, and it was passed in the National Assembly on 13 November amid demonstrations of opposition members and civil society groups.

The provision under the new law calls for the establishment of a new Federal Constitutional Court (FCC), which would surpass the Pakistan Supreme Court, the country's highest judicial authority. It would handle all constitutional, military, and national security–related cases, taking away the Supreme Court’s power to review or challenge decisions linked to the armed forces or national defence.

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Both the Judges called on Chief Justice of Pakistan Yahya Afridi in separate letters to convene a full court summit and judicial conference to debate the 27th Constitutional Amendment.

Justice Mansoor Ali Shah, in his letter to the president on Thursday (Nov 13), described the amendment as “a grave assault on the Constitution of Pakistan”, which “dismantles the Supreme Court of Pakistan, subjugates the judiciary to executive control, and strikes at the very heart of our constitutional democracy”.

“By fracturing the unity of the nation’s apex court, it has crippled judicial independence and integrity, pushing the country back by decades,” he wrote.

“As history bears witness, such a disfigurement of the constitutional order is unsustainable and will, in time, be reversed - but not before leaving deep institutional scars,” he declared.

Explaining his decision, the judge stated that he had a choice between serving as an SC justice, which he said “undermines the very foundation of the institution one has sworn to protect”, or hand in his resignation.

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In the same vein, Justice Ather Minallah stated in his letter that when he took the oath of office 11 years ago, he swore to uphold not “a constitution” but “the Constitution”.

Expressing regret, Justice Minallah said that the Constitution he swore to uphold was “no more”, adding that he “can think of no greater assault on its memory than to pretend that, as new foundations are now laid, they rest upon anything other than its grave”.

“What is left of it is a mere shadow; one that breathes neither its spirit, nor speaks the words of the people to whom it belongs,” Ather wrote in his letter.