President accepts resignations of Justices Mansoor Ali Shah, Athar Minallah after 27th Amendment row

President Asif Ali Zardari has accepted the resignations of Supreme Court judges Justice Mansoor Ali Shah and Justice Athar Minallah.

The unprecedented resignations came just hours after President Zardari signed the amendment bill into law on Thursday, triggering turmoil within the country’s top court and prompting widespread concern from the legal fraternity.

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 stated: "The Twenty-Seventh Constitutional Amendment stands as a grave 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 judges Mansoor Ali Shah, Athar Minallah resign after passage of 27th Amendment

Justice Shah said he could no longer uphold his oath while serving in a court stripped of its constitutional role. "I am unable to uphold my oath sitting inside a court that has been deprived of its constitutional role; resignation therefore becomes the only honest and effective expression of honouring my oath. Continuing in such a version of the Supreme Court of Pakistan, would only suggest that I bartered my oath for titles, salaries, or privileges."

Invoking Article 206(1) of the Constitution, he added: "Accordingly, for the reasons set out hereunder, 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 strongly worded resignation. Calling it a privilege to have served the judiciary, he said his oath compelled him to step down. "It has been my greatest honour and privilege to serve the people of Pakistan as part of its judiciary, and I have, to the best of my ability, endeavored to discharge my duties in accordance with my oath. Today, it is that very same oath that compels me to tender my formal resignation."

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In lamenting the state of the Constitution, he stated: "The Constitution that I swore an oath to uphold and defend is no more. Much as I have tried to convince myself otherwise, I can think of no bigger assault on its memory than to pretend that, as new foundations are now laid, they rest upon anything other than its grave. For, what is left of it is a mere shadow – one that breathes neither its spirit, nor speaks the words of the people to whom it belongs."

Concluding his letter, Justice Minallah wrote: "It is in that ardent hope that I now hang these robes up 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 calls from Supreme Court judges, bar associations, and senior members of the legal community urging reconsideration of the amendment. Many argued that the new law threatened judicial independence and risked altering the balance of constitutional powers.