Laws and rights in transition
AS Martin Luther King once said, “An unjust law is no law at all.” In recent years, Pakistan has witnessed constitutional changes and amendments whose effects have rippled across the…
LG constitutional amendment
SOMETHING extraordinary, if not unprecedented, has happened in the parliamentary history of Pakistan. The Punjab Assembly passed a unanimous resolution on Oct 28, with significant support from the PTI-aligned opposition, proposing that…
Nature’s rights
PAKISTAN, seen as the land of waters, is, in fact, strewn with obstructed, polluted and abandoned water bodies. Almost all of its 19 Ramsar sites — wetlands of international importance…
Let human rights be
Civil society organisations (CSOs) in Pakistan are currently enduring one of the most challenging periods in the country’s history. Any CSO that advocates for human rights or raises awareness about…
Discussing transgender rights
The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) has long been an advocate for the rights of transgender individuals. Most recently, it launched a campaign titled ‘Meri Pehchaan, Mera Ikhtiyar’ (My…
‘Unconstitutional’ windfall tax—II
Discriminatory without intelligible differentia [Points 7 & 8] The Supreme Court of Pakistan in Federation of Pakistan through Chairman FBR and others v Hazrat Hussain and others (2018 SCMR 939)…
‘Unconstitutional’ windfall tax–I
Banks have regular windfall income from dealing in foreign currencies – oxymoronic treatment by SRO. 1588(I)/2023 dated 21.11.2023. In Pakistan, Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) is de facto legislature (sic)…
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,…
Our rights wronged
DEAD men do not write autobiographies. Someone in time will breathe life into their past. The first 12 Roman caesars — starting with Julius Caesar — had the historian Suetonius.…
Constitutional amendments
CONSTITUTIONAL office holders, including superior court judges and legislators, swear an oath when assuming office. The oath requires them to act in accordance with the Constitution. Does this mean they…
