According to Dawn, here is a brief history of the Supreme Court’s intervention during the constitutional crisis . The Supreme Court has intervened several times in the country’s 75-year history during the constitutional crisis. There have been cases where the courts have been used to seal the deal with highly controversial executive measures, including repeal or suspension of the constitution, while judges, on the other hand, have refused to bow to executive pressure.
The direction of judicial and administrative relations was decided by the decision of the Federal Court (now Supreme Court) in 1955 in the case of Federation of Pakistan v. Maulvi Tamizuddin.
In 1954, Governor General Ghulam Muhammad dismissed the first Constituent Assembly and this dismissal was challenged by the then President Maulvi Tamizuddin in the present Sindh High Court.
The Chief Court had quashed the dismissal of the Assembly but a federal court headed by Justice Muhammad Munir had quashed the decision of the Chief Court on technical grounds.
The second test of the independence of the judiciary came when the Supreme Court was asked to rule on the legality of the state v. Doso and others in the 1958 martial law regime.
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The court, headed by Justice Munir, was moved by Hans Kelson’s theory of necessity and said that a successful revolution or coup was an internationally recognized way to change the constitution.
Therefore, a new legal government was formed under the Continuation in Force Order, 1958, issued by General Ayub, which gave legitimacy to all legal entities, including the courts.
The court’s decision was seen as an invitation to future military adventures.
In 1972, the decision in the case of Asma Jilani v. Dosso between the Punjab government was severely criticized by the Supreme Court itself. Was
The court observed that it is difficult to define the authority under which martial law can be declared, military coup or the legitimate rule of a military ruler is not in itself legitimate and instead it gained legal status only then. When the courts recognized them legally.
The decision raised hopes that the judiciary would not seal the executive’s unconstitutional actions in the future.
However, this hope did not last long. In the case of Begum Nusrat Bhutto v. Chief of Army Staff and Federation of Pakistan, the Supreme Court again declared a military coup in 1977, this time by General Zia-ul-Haq and justified it on the basis of state need and welfare of the people. went.
In the 1989 Haji Saifullah v. Federation of Pakistan case, the Supreme Court declared the dissolution of the Assembly in 1987 and the removal of Prime Minister Muhammad Khan Junejo illegal. The court did not restore the dissolved assembly.
The Supreme Court upheld the dissolution of the Assemblies in 1990 and 1996 under Article 58 (2B) of the Constitution and the removal of the then Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.
However, in 1993, the Supreme Court overturned the dissolution order and reinstated Nawaz Sharif.
In the 1999 coup that led to General Musharraf’s rise to power, the judiciary was once again undermined by the ideology of necessity. I became the Chief Justice of Pakistan.
On November 3, 2007, Musharraf declared a state of emergency in Pakistan and suspended the constitution. The bench was headed by Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry.
The judges who delivered the verdict, along with more than 50 other members of the high court, were ousted by the military ruler and a temporary constitutional order (PCO) was enacted.
A few days later, on November 24, a seven-member bench of the newly constituted Supreme Court, headed by Chief Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar, upheld the imposition of emergency and the PCO.
On July 31, 2009, the Supreme Court had declared the actions taken by Pervez Musharraf on November 3, 2007 under Article 279 of the Constitution as illegal and unconstitutional.
