- Minister insists that judges are not a political party at all.
- Warns that Pakistan cannot afford instability or chaos now.
- Defends Parliament’s power to amend the Constitution.
Responding to criticism by Supreme Court judges against the constitutional amendments, Interior Minister Talal Chaudhry on Sunday defended the federal government’s move, saying it is the sole prerogative of parliament to amend the constitution.
His statement came after two Supreme Court jurists, Mansoor Ali Shah and Athar Minallah, tendered their resignations following the passage of the 27th constitutional amendment earlier this week.
Not just the top court, a Lahore High Court (LHC) judge, Shams Mehmood Mirza, also resigned a day ago, saying he was “not inclined as a matter of principle and in good conscience to continue as a judge” after the 27th Amendment.
The amendments fine-tuned the structure of the newly created Federal Constitutional Court (FCC), clarified the titles and ranks of the country’s top judges, and approved changes to the military command.
On Friday, President Asif Ali Zardari approved Shah and Minallah’s resignation.
“Amending the constitution is the sole prerogative of the Parliament and it will do it whenever it wants,” he said while talking to reporters in Faisalabad today.
He emphasized that judges “are not a political party” and only take an oath to uphold the Constitution.
Criticizing sections of the judiciary, Chaudhry said the constitution will reflect the parliament and people of Pakistan, not judges. He added that the legislature “must be seen as Parliament”, claiming that certain actors had “reduced it to a municipal corporation”.
He further said that judges’ salaries and “every single decision” ultimately came under Parliament’s authority.
“These resignations [of judges] are political. They remained partial,” the minister said.
The ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz leader said that the country cannot afford any kind of chaos or instability at present.
“Sometimes they sacked prime ministers through suo motu and other times they paralyzed elected governments,” he said.
Chaudhry said it was not the role of the judiciary to “remove whoever it wants and install whoever it prefers”.
It is noteworthy to mention here that the SC jurists had criticized the 27th Amendment and described it as a “gross attack on the Constitution of Pakistan”.
In his 13-page resignation letter, Shah called the latest constitutional amendment an attack on the constitution that dismantles the Supreme Court, compromises the independence of the judiciary and weakens the country’s constitutional democracy.
Warning that judicial independence is facing “the beginning of the end”, he said nations lose their moral compass when justice is curtailed.
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 realized amid “silence and inaction”. To continue in office, he said, would betray his oath and dishonor the memory of the Constitution.
However, the federal government called the judges’ dismissals “political speeches” and the latter’s claims “unconstitutional”.
