President approves resignations of Supreme Court’s Mansoor Ali Shah, Athar Minallah

• Justice Shah called 27th Amendment grave assault on Constitution.
• Constitution now exists only as a hollow shadow: Justice Minallah.
• Govt termed resignations “political speeches, unconstitutional”.

ISLAMABAD: President Asif Ali Zardari on Friday approved the resignations of Supreme Court justices Mansoor Ali Shah and Athar Minallah.

Both the judges had forwarded their resignations to President Zardari following the enactment of the 27th Constitutional Amendment a day ago.

The jurists had criticised the 27th Amendment, describing it as a “grave assault on the Constitution of Pakistan”. However, the federal government called the judges’ resignations “political speeches” and the latter’s allegations “unconstitutional”.

Justice Shah, in his 13-page resignation letter, called the recent constitutional tweak an assault on the Constitution that dismantles the Supreme Court, compromises judicial independence and weakens the country’s constitutional democracy.

On Wednesday, the National Assembly passed the amendment bill, making changes to the judicial structure and military command.

The amended bill fine-tunes the structure of the newly established Federal Constitutional Court (FCC), clarifies the titles and ranking of the country’s top judges, and drops several clauses from the Senate-approved draft that had sought to alter oath-related provisions for various constitutional offices.

Another key modification came in Clause 23, which amends Article 176 to include a proviso specifying that, “notwithstanding anything contained in the Constitution, the incumbent Chief Justice shall continue to be known as the Chief Justice of Pakistan during his term in office”.

A further addition was made under Clause 56, which now defines the “Chief Justice of Pakistan” as “the senior among the Chief Justice of the Federal Constitutional Court and the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court”, thereby establishing a formal hierarchy between the two judicial heads. The tweaks were sent to the Senate and passed on the same day.

Justice Shah wrote that the amendment, passed “without debate or consultation”, creates an FCC above the Supreme Court and places the judiciary under executive influence, leaving the apex court “truncated and diminished”.

He said he could not remain in a court “stripped of its constitutional authority”, adding that continuing would amount to silently accepting a constitutional wrong. He lamented that his hope after the 26th Amendment had now “been extinguished”.

Warning that judicial independence faces “the beginning of the end”, he said nations lose their moral compass when justice is constrained. He thanked colleagues and family, saying resignation was the only honest way to honour his oath.

Justice Minallah, in his resignation letter, rejected the 27th Amendment, saying the Constitution he pledged to defend “no longer exists” and now survives only as a shadow without its spirit.

He wrote that he had warned the chief justice before the amendment’s passage, but his concerns were realised amid “silence and inaction”. Continuing in office, he said, would betray his oath and dishonour the Constitution’s memory.

Reacting to the content of the judges’ resignations, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Political Affairs Rana Sanaullah termed the jurists respectable but accused them of advancing a “political” and “self-serving” agenda, urging them to explain their claim that the Supreme Court had been fractured.

Separately, Minister of State for Law Barrister Aqeel Malik labelled the letters “unconstitutional”, insisting Parliament’s legislative authority cannot be challenged. He criticised the political use of courts, saying decisions must follow law rather than personal interests.