CJP will immediately call a plenary meeting to formulate an institutional response
Judge Yahya Afridi. PHOTO: ARCHIVE
A group of 38 former law clerks of Pakistan’s Supreme Court have written a letter to Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Yahya Afridi, warning that the proposed 27th Constitutional Amendment poses an “existential threat” to judicial independence and could “mean the ultimate death knell of the Supreme Court.”
The signatories – including lawyers Mirza Moiz Baig, Umer Gilani, Hareem Godil, Alizeh Akbar Meer and others – said the amendment represents “a much more serious threat than what was faced in 2007”, and urged the CJP to immediately convene a Plenary meeting to formulate an institutional response.
“As former law clerks of the Supreme Court, we believe that the independence of the judiciary currently faces a much more serious threat than it faced in 2007,” the letter said. “The biggest threat to an independent judiciary is judges willing to capitulate their independence.”
The former secretaries reminded the Chief Justice that the apex court, through its landmark judgments – Sindh High Court Bar Council v. Federation of Pakistan (PLD 2009 SC 879) and Rawalpindi District Bar Council v. Federation of Pakistan (PLD 2015 SC 401) – had reaffirmed the constitutional duty of the judiciary to preserve the separation of powers and safeguard its independence.
Read: Letters flood SC urging a response
Even yesterday, letters were written (one of them backed by senior lawyers and retired judges) denouncing the amendment as a “political device to weaken and control the judiciary” and the “most radical restructuring of the Supreme Court since the Government of India Act of 1935”.
They noted that the 27th Amendment “seeks to subjugate the judiciary under the guise 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 radical changes in Pakistan’s judicial, administrative and federal structures. It provides for the creation of Federal Constitutional Courts in Islamabad and the provinces, empowers the executive to oversee judicial transfers and reintroduces executive magistrates, measures that critics say would severely limit judicial independence.
The draft also proposes changes to Article 243 of the Constitution, including the abolition of the position of Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee, the creation of a new Chief of the Defense Forces and the granting of immunity and life tenure to military chiefs.
Read more: Judiciary weighs response to 27th Amendment
Appealing to CJP Afridi’s own role in the 2007-2009 lawyers’ movement, the letter said: “You are in the unique position of immortalizing your name in the annals of judicial history. Your actions today will determine whether you will be known as the Chief Justice who stood as a bulwark against the destruction of the Supreme Court or as someone who buried the Supreme Court.”
The letter concludes with a stark warning: “We are on the edge of the precipice. It is now or never.”
The communication, signed by 38 former Supreme Court clerks, comes amid growing opposition within the legal community to the proposed 27th Amendment, which critics say aims to restrict the autonomy of the judiciary and restructure Pakistan’s judicial system under greater executive control.
