Referee Yahya Afridi. PHOTO: FILE
A group of 38 former barristers of the Supreme Court of Pakistan have written a letter to Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Yahya Afridi, warning that the proposed 27th constitutional amendment poses an “existential threat” to the independence of the judiciary and could “signal the final death knell for the Supreme Court”.
The signatories – including lawyers Mirza Moiz Baig, Umer Gilani, Hareem Godil, Alizeh Akbar Meer and others – said the amendment represents “a threat far more serious than the one faced in 2007,” and urged the CJP to immediately convene a full court meeting to formulate an institutional response.
“As former solicitors at the Supreme Court, we believe that the independence of the judiciary is currently facing a threat far more serious than the one it faced in 2007,” the letter states. “The greatest threat to an independent judiciary is judges who are willing to capitulate their independence”.
The former secretaries reminded the Chief Justice that the apex court through its landmark decisions – Sindh High Court Bar Association vs Federation of Pakistan (PLD 2009 SC 879) and District Bar Association Rawalpindi vs Federation of Pakistan (PLD 2015 SC 401) – had affirmed the duty of judicial separation to protect its constitutional powers and preserve its constitutional powers. independence.
Read: Letters flood SC calling for reaction
Even yesterday, letters written – one endorsed by senior lawyers and retired judges – have condemned the amendment as a “political tool to weaken and control the judiciary” and the “most radical restructuring of the Supreme Court since the Government of India Act, 1935”.
They noted that the 27th Amendment “seeks to subjugate the judiciary under the garb of reform” and urged the Chief Justice to resist it “in keeping with the Court’s historic role as a bulwark against executive and legislative excesses”.
The proposed 27th Constitutional Amendment seeks sweeping changes to Pakistan’s judicial, administrative and federal structures. It envisages the creation of federal constitutional courts in Islamabad and the provinces, empowers the executive to oversee judicial transfers and reinstates executive judges – measures critics say will severely curtail judicial independence.
The draft also proposes changes to Article 243 of the constitution, including abolishing the position of Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, creating a new Chief of Defense Forces and granting life tenure and immunity to military commanders.
Read more: The judiciary is weighing responses to the 27th amendment
The letter appealed to CJP Afridi’s own role in the lawyers’ movement of 2007-2009, saying: “You are in the unique position of perpetuating your name in the annals of judicial history. Your actions today will dictate whether you will be known as the chief justice who stood as a bulwark against the destruction of the Supreme Court or as one who brought down the Supreme Court”.
The letter ends with a sharp warning: “We stand on the edge of the abyss. It is now or never”.
The announcement, signed by 38 former secretaries of the Supreme Court, comes amid growing opposition in the legal community to the proposed 27th Amendment, which critics say aims to curtail the autonomy of the judiciary and restructure Pakistan’s judicial system under greater executive control.
