This past week marked a dark chapter in Pakistan’s constitutional history. Parliament ratified the 27th Constitutional Amendment, triggering an institutional earthquake. The immediate fallout is telling: two eminent Supreme Court justices, Mansoor Ali Shah and Athar Minallah, tendered their resignations in protest, branding the amendment a “grave assault” on the nation’s foundational document.

As the new Federal Constitutional Court (FCC) is inaugurated with Justice Aminuddin Khan as its first Chief Justice, the opposition alliance has announced countrywide protests. This is not mere political wrangling; it is a fundamental re-engineering of the state that eviscerates judicial independence and constitutionalises a privileged class above the law.

The government, wielding its controversial two-thirds majority (bolstered by a Supreme Court ruling on reserved seats), executed this transformation with chilling efficiency. Law Minister Azam Nazir Tarar presented the Bill on 8 November 2025; it was rammed through the Senate and National Assembly by 12 November amid an opposition boycott and outcry from civil society over the lack of due deliberation. Such haste regarding a profound constitutional change speaks volumes about its intent: to avoid democratic scrutiny and silence dissent.

The heart of this constitutional coup lies in its systematic reconfiguration of the judiciary. The creation of the FCC is not a benign administrative reform; it crushes the Supreme Court’s authority, stripping it of its jurisdiction over constitutional matters and vesting it in a........

© The Friday Times