Pakistan’s judiciary was shaken on Thursday as two of the Supreme Court’s most senior judges, Justice Mansoor Ali Shah and Justice Athar Minallah, tendered their resignations in direct protest against the passage of the 27th Constitutional Amendment.
In a strongly worded 13 page resignation letter, Justice Mansoor Ali Shah described the amendment as nothing less than an attack on Pakistan’s constitutional order. Calling the move a dismantling of the Supreme Court, he wrote that the amendment “subjugates the judiciary to executive control” and makes justice “more distant, more fragile, and more vulnerable to power.”
Sources say he ended his resignation note with the evocative words of Ahmad Faraz, a symbolic gesture widely interpreted as a quiet protest against rising political pressure.
Justice Shah said he could not continue serving in “a court deprived of its constitutional role,” adding that staying would amount to exchanging his oath for “titles, salaries, or privileges.”
Justice Athar Minallah, in his resignation letter, delivered an equally stark rebuke. He wrote that the Constitution he swore to defend “is no more” and that continuing under the new structure would be to pretend that the judiciary still rested on constitutional foundations. “What is left of it is a mere shadow,” he wrote, before resigning with immediate effect.
Their resignations come hours after President Asif Ali Zardari signed the amendment into law, following its approval by both houses of Parliament. The amendment comprising of 56 clauses establishes a new Federal Constitutional Court (FCC), which now holds authority over constitutional cases, effectively placing the Supreme Court beneath it. Justice Yahya Afridi has been appointed Chief Justice of Pakistan under the new structure.
Sources confirmed that Chief Justice Afridi has summoned a full court meeting on Friday to deliberate on the amendment, following repeated requests by sitting judges, bar associations, and prominent lawyers.
The legal community has reacted sharply, warning that the amendment represents a fundamental shift in the balance of power between the judiciary and the executive. Critics say the creation of the FCC undermines the independence of the Supreme Court and rewires Pakistan’s judicial architecture without consensus.
Judges Mansoor Ali Shah and Athar Minallah had earlier urged CJP Afridi to convene a judicial convention to address the crisis, a call echoed by retired judges and senior lawyers. No such meeting was held prior to the passage of the amendment.
