Islamabad (Web Desk): President Asif Ali Zardari has officially accepted the resignations of Supreme Court judges Mansoor Ali Shah and Athar Minallah, a post on the president’s X account confirmed on Friday.
The two judges had submitted their resignations a day earlier, mere hours after the signing of the contentious 27th Constitutional Amendment, which they criticized as an attack on both the judiciary and the 1973 Constitution.
In a deeply personal 13-page letter addressed to the president and written in English and Urdu, Justice Mansoor Ali Shah declared his resignation as the senior-most judge of the Supreme Court, emphasizing that his decision was guided by his loyalty to the Constitution.
He described the amendment as a “grave assault” that effectively weakened the Supreme Court, subjected the judiciary to executive influence, and struck at the “very heart” of Pakistan’s constitutional democracy. He warned that the legislation had made justice “more distant, more fragile, and more vulnerable to power.”
Justice Athar Minallah, in his resignation, expressed profound sorrow, lamenting that the Constitution he had sworn to defend “no longer exists.” He wrote that despite his efforts to reconcile with the changes, he could not ignore what he saw as a fundamental violation, adding that the new foundations being laid rested upon “nothing other than its grave.”
Both judges had previously written to Chief Justice of Pakistan Yahya Afridi, requesting a full court session to discuss the amendment. However, according to a Supreme Court press release, the full court meeting held today did not address the 27th Amendment and instead approved the Supreme Court Rules, 2025.
Reacting to their resignations, Defence Minister Khawaja Asif criticized the judges, saying their “consciences only awakened after their monopoly was curtailed.”