ISLAMABAD: Two judges of Pakistan’s Supreme Court resigned in protest against the 27th constitutional amendment hours after it was signed into law on Thursday, with one of them saying the fresh changes were a “grave assault” on the constitution.
The amendments make changes to the powerful military’s structure, promoting Pakistan’s Army Chief General Syed Asim Munir to Chief of Defense Forces. This means the navy and air force are now under his command, in addition to the army. The legislation also abolishes the post of Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee.
The 27th constitutional amendment also sets up a Federal Constitutional Court (FCC) which would hear and decide cases relating to Pakistan’s constitution instead of the Supreme Court.
Hours after President Asif Ali Zardari signed the amendment into law, Supreme Court judges Justice Athar Minallah and Justice Mansoor Ali Shah resigned from their posts.
“The Twenty-Seventh Constitutional Amendment stands as a grave assault on the Constitution of Pakistan,” Justice Shah wrote in his resignation letter addressed to the president, a copy of which is available with Arab News.
“It dismantles the Supreme Court of Pakistan, subjugates the judiciary to executive control, and strikes at the very heart of our constitutional democracy, making justice more distant, more fragile, and more vulnerable to power,” he added.
The FCC’s judges will be appointed by the government, a move critics say will clip the judiciary’s powers. Pakistan’s government has said the FCC will help reduce the judiciary’s burden and ensure speedy justice to the masses.
The Supreme Court judge said staying on would not only amount to “silent acquiescence in a constitutional wrong” but would also mean continuing to sit in a court whose constitutional voice “has been muted.”
He said the Supreme Court had still retained the jurisdiction to examine and answer constitutional questions in the 26th constitutional amendment.
“The present amendment has stripped this court of that fundamental and critical jurisdiction and authority,” he said.
“Serving in such a truncated and diminished court, I cannot protect the constitution, nor can I even judicially examine the amendment that has disfigured it.”
‘SELECTIVE SILENCE, INACTION’
Justice Minallah said in his resignation letter that before the 27th constitutional amendment was passed, he wrote to the chief justice to express his concerns over the proposed changes and what they would mean for Pakistan’s constitutional order.
“I need not reproduce the detailed contents of that letter, but suffice it to say that, against a canvas of selective silence and inaction, those fears have now come to be,” Minallah wrote.
“The Constitution that I swore an oath to uphold and defend is no more,” he added.
Pakistan’s military, which has ruled the country directly for over 30 years, still continues to wield considerable influence from behind the scenes. It vigorously denies interfering in political or constitutional matters.
