Pakistan dispatch: two Supreme Court justices resign in protest of 27th Constitutional Amendment

Noor Ul Huda is a JURIST staff correspondent in Pakistan and a recent graduate of Punjab University Law College. She files this dispatch from Lahore.

A profound constitutional crisis is gripping Pakistan. Two of the country’s most respected Supreme Court judges, Justices Syed Mansoor Ali Shah and Athar Minallah, have resigned in protest , declaring that the Constitution they swore to uphold has been rendered a mere “shadow” and the Supreme Court “crippled.”

The resignations came after the passage of the controversial 27th Constitutional Amendment from the Parliament of Pakistan on November 13, which received President Asif Ali Zardari’s assent. The sweeping reform has placed the judiciary under the shadow of executive influence. Following the two judges, Justice Shams Mehmood Mirz