Constitutional breakdown
IT was in 19th-century Britain that A.V. Dicey wrote that the British parliament is sovereign, and no person or body has the right to override legislation of parliament. Since then,…
Unpacking the 26th Amendment
Let me start by first clarifying that this piece is not an attack against the very genesis of the 26th Amendment (the amendment) to the constitution of the Islamic Republic…
An opportunity for review
The Election Commission of Pakistan has filed a review petition against the SC order of April 4 fixing May 14 as the date for election in Punjab as well as…
Right to health
THE Human Rights Commission of Pakistan recently convened a national roundtable on enshrining the right to health in the Constitution — a great initiative and a step in the right…
Rewriting the constitution
The Supreme Court and other superior courts have the power to interpret the constitution. But there is a need for caution. A US chief justice, John Marshall, in his famous…
Sham elections
IN the bail petition of Imran Khan and Shah Mahmood Qureshi in the ‘cipher case’, Justice Athar Minallah, through an order dated Dec 22, 2023, almost prophetically observed: “Discrimination or…
SC appointments
Judiciary, in Pakistan and elsewhere, has become from being the least potent branch to the most potent branch over the years. Judicial power, with the charter of rights placed in…
A new chief justice
The president notified this week that Justice Saqib Nisar would assume office of the chief justice of Pakistan on Dec 31, 2016. Each new chief justice (we have had four…
International law & foreign policy
The recently released Chilcot Report of the Iraq Inquiry has created quite a stir in international law and politics. Crucially, its bruising fallout for the UK and US also offers…
The basic structure debate
As some representative bodies of the lawyers in Pakistan have formally challenged the recently-passed 21st Amendment to the constitution through various constitutional petitions in the Supreme Court, the well-known doctrine…
