- The minister insists that judges are not a political party at all.
- Warns that Pakistan cannot afford instability or chaos now.
- Defends the power of Parliament to amend the Constitution.
Responding to criticism from Supreme Court judges against the constitutional amendments, Minister of State for Interior Talal Chaudhry on Sunday defended the federal government’s decision, saying that amending the Constitution is the exclusive right of Parliament.
His statement comes after two senior jurists, Mansoor Ali Shah and Athar Minallah, tendered their resignations following the promulgation of the 27th constitutional amendment earlier this week.
Not only the top court, a judge of the Lahore High Court (LHC), 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.
These changes refined the structure of the new Federal Constitutional Court (FCC), clarified the titles and rankings of the country’s highest judges, and approved changes in military command.
On Friday, President Asif Ali Zardari approved the resignations of Shah and Minallah.
“Amending the Constitution is the exclusive right of Parliament, and it will do so whenever it wishes,” he said while talking to reporters in Faisalabad today.
He stressed that judges “are not a political party” and simply take an oath to uphold the Constitution.
Criticizing certain sections of the judiciary, Chaudhry said the Constitution would reflect the parliament and people of Pakistan, not the judges. He added that the legislative branch “must be considered as a Parliament”, arguing that certain actors had “reduced it to a municipal corporation”.
He added that judges’ salaries and “every decision” were ultimately within the authority of Parliament.
“These resignations [of judges] are political. They remained biased,” the minister said.
The leader of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz said the country cannot afford any form of chaos or instability at this stage.
“Sometimes they dismissed prime ministers suo motu, and other times they paralyzed elected governments,” he said.
Chaudhry said it was not the role of the judiciary to “oust whoever it pleases and install whoever it pleases”.
It is worth mentioning here that SC jurists had criticized the 27th Amendment, describing it as a “grave attack on the Constitution of Pakistan”.
Shah, in his 13-page resignation letter, called the recent constitutional amendment an attack on the Constitution that dismantles the Supreme Court, undermines judicial independence and weakens the country’s constitutional democracy.
Warning that judicial independence is “the beginning of the end”, he said nations lose their moral compass when justice is limited.
Justice Minallah, in his resignation letter, rejected the 27th Amendment, saying the Constitution he had pledged to uphold “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 was adopted, but that his concerns were met with “silence and inaction.” To remain in office, he said, would betray his oath and dishonor the memory of the Constitution.
However, the federal government called the judges’ resignations “political speeches” and the judges’ allegations “unconstitutional.”
