Two top Pakistani judges quit, citing opposition to controversial 27th Amendment

Two senior justices of Pakistan’s Supreme Court, Mansoor Ali Shah and Athar Minallah, have resigned in protest against the 27th Constitutional Amendment, which was passed by the National Assembly and Senate and subsequently signed into law by the President of Pakistan.

Both judges formally submitted their resignations to the president.

'Grave assault on Constitution'

In a detailed resignation letter, Justice Shah described the amendment as a “grave assault on the Constitution of Pakistan”. He said it “dismantles the Supreme Court, subjugates the judiciary to executive control, and strikes at the very heart of our constitutional democracy.”

Framing his resignation as a matter of constitutional duty, Justice Shah wrote, “I am unable to uphold my oath sitting inside a court that has been deprived of its constitutional role; resignation therefore becomes the only honest and effective expression of honouring my oath.” He emphasized that remaining in office would mean he had “bartered my oath for titles, salaries, or privileges.”

Justice Shah sharply criticized the process behind the amendment, calling the new Federal Constitutional Court a “manufactured” entity. He accused the incumbent Chief Justice of Pakistan of abandoning his leadership responsibilities, asserting that the Chief Justice “assented to the amendment and negotiated only the preservation of his own position and title, even as the Court's constitutional stature was being dismantled.”

He concluded that the amendment’s “only discernible purpose is to place the judiciary under executive influence, allowing those in power to curate, control, and manufacture a constitutional court of their own choosing.”

Mourning a Constitution that 'is no more'

Echoing the sense of loss, Justice Minallah began his resignation by stating that the Constitution he swore to uphold “is no more.”

He wrote, “Much as I have tried to convince myself otherwise, I 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.”

Justice Minallah disclosed that he had previously expressed his concerns to the Chief Justice. “Against a canvas of selective silence and inaction, those fears have now come to be,” he said, reflecting on the judiciary’s historical failures where judges’ robes “too often stood as symbols of betrayal – through silence and complicity alike.”

He described his resignation as an act of principle, taken in the ardent hope that the future will not repeat the past.

Despite differences in tone, both justices conveyed a shared message: the Supreme Court’s role as the guardian of Pakistan’s Constitution has been fundamentally compromised, and they could not, in good conscience, be part of the new judicial framework.

Justice Shah issued a stark warning, “Nations that prosper are those that place the rule of law at the heart of their governance and preserve judicial independence as a sacred trust. Where justice is shackled, nations do not merely falter – they lose their moral compass. History bears witness: when courts fall silent, societies descend into darkness.”