The resignations came just hours after President Zardari signed the amendment bill on Thursday.
Justice Mansoor Ali Shah (L) and Justice Athar Minallah (R). Photo: Archives
President Asif Ali Zardari on Friday accepted the resignations of the Supreme Court’s senior judges Justice Mansoor Ali Shah and Justice Athar Minallah, a day after both judges resigned in protest against the passage of the 27th Constitutional Amendment.
The Office of the President confirmed the fact in a brief statement issued on day X.
President Asif Ali Zardari accepted the resignations of Supreme Court judges Justice Mansoor Ali Shah and Justice Athar Minallah.
— The President of Pakistan (@PresOfPakistan) November 14, 2025
The unprecedented resignations came just hours after President Zardari signed the amendment bill into law on Thursday, sparking turmoil within the country’s top court and sparking widespread concern among the legal community.
In his resignation letter, Justice Shah described the 27th Amendment as “a serious attack on the Constitution of Pakistan”, warning that it had “fragmented the Supreme Court of Pakistan”.
He declared: “The Twenty-Seventh Constitutional Amendment constitutes a serious assault on the Constitution of Pakistan. It dismantles the Supreme Court of Pakistan, subjugates the judiciary to executive control and strikes at the very heart of our constitutional democracy, making justice more distant, more fragile and more vulnerable to power.”
Read: Supreme Court Justices Mansoor Ali Shah and Athar Minallah Resign Following Passage of 27th Amendment
Justice Shah said he could no longer fulfill his oath while serving on a court stripped of its constitutional role. “I cannot uphold my oath by sitting within a court that has been deprived of its constitutional role; therefore, resignation becomes the only honest and effective expression of honoring my oath. To continue in such a version of the Supreme Court of Pakistan would only suggest that I exchanged my oath for titles, salaries or privileges.”
Invoking Article 206(1) of the Constitution, he added: “Accordingly, for the reasons set out below, and in terms of Article 206(1) of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, I hereby resign from the office of Judge of the Supreme Court of Pakistan, with immediate effect.”
Justice Athar Minallah echoed similar concerns in his forceful resignation. He called it a privilege to have worked in the judiciary and said his oath of office forced him to resign. “It has been my greatest honor and privilege to serve the people of Pakistan as part of its judiciary and, to the best of my ability, I have endeavored to discharge my duties in accordance with my oath. Today, it is that same oath that compels me to tender my formal resignation.”
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Lamenting the state of the Constitution, he stated: “The Constitution I swore to uphold and defend no longer exists. As much as I have tried to convince myself otherwise, I can think of no greater assault on its memory than to pretend that, as new foundations are laid, they rest on something more than its grave. For what remains of it is a mere shadow, one that neither breathes its spirit nor speaks the words of the people to whom it belongs.”
Concluding his letter, Justice Minallah wrote: “It is with that ardent hope that I now hang up this robe for the last time and tender my formal resignation from the office of Judge of the Supreme Court of Pakistan, with immediate effect.”
The resignations follow a wave of urgent letters and appeals from Supreme Court justices, bar associations and senior members of the legal community urging the amendment to be reconsidered. Many argued that the new law threatened judicial independence and risked upsetting the balance of constitutional powers.
