New Delhi: In a dramatic escalation of Pakistan’s constitutional confrontation, Supreme Court judge Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah resigned on Thursday, accusing the state of dismantling judicial independence through the Twenty-Seventh Constitutional Amendment a measure widely seen as consolidating unprecedented authority in the hands of the military establishment and its chief, General Asim Munir.
In his resignation letter to the President, Justice Shah said the amendment “stands as a grave assault on the Constitution,” warning that it strips the Supreme Court of its defining powers and places the judiciary “under executive influence.”
While the letter does not name individuals, the political backdrop is unmistakable: the amendment was passed just a day after Parliament approved sweeping legal protections and expanded powers for General Munir, moves critics describe as part of a coordinated effort to centralize authority under the military.
Justice Shah wrote that the restructuring “fractures the unity of the nation’s apex court” and reduces it to a subordinate tribunal, leaving constitutional interpretation to a newly created Federal Constitutional Court a body whose formation, timing and design legal analysts say align with the military leadership’s push to avoid unfriendly judicial scrutiny.
The amendment was enacted without consultation or debate, he said, and lacks “constitutional logic, legal necessity or jurisprudential foundation.”
Seen against the backdrop of Parliament’s rapid passage of pro-military legislation, Shah’s resignation is widely interpreted as the first major institutional pushback from within the judiciary.
Legal experts say the Twenty-Seventh Amendment, along with the earlier Twenty-Sixth, marks the most profound remaking of Pakistan’s judicial architecture since independence, shifting decisive constitutional authority away from independently appointed judges and towards a system more malleable to the country’s power centres foremost among them the army chief.
Justice Shah wrote that he was left with only two choices: remain part of an arrangement that “undermines the very foundation” of the judiciary, or step aside in protest. Staying on, he said, would amount to “silent acquiescence in a constitutional wrong” and suggest he had “bartered [his] oath for titles, salaries, or privileges.”
His decision is expected to intensify scrutiny of the amendment process, particularly amid questions about whether the Supreme Court’s leadership avoided confronting the legislation to preserve its own positions under the emerging structure.
Lawyers’ bodies and former court clerks have warned that the reforms effectively neutralize the Supreme Court as an independent check on the executive and military establishment, granting the new constitutional court powers that could insulate future political and security decisions from judicial review.
Justice Shah concluded his letter by saying he leaves “with honour and integrity” and a clear conscience after trying throughout his career “to give life to the Constitution, strengthen democracy, expand rights, and uphold the rule of law.”
The move is expected to sharpen the fault lines between the judiciary and the increasingly entrenched power of General Asim Munir, setting the stage for a prolonged institutional clash over Pakistan’s constitutional future.
