Chairing a full court reference held at the Supreme Court on the eve of retirement of Justice Raja Fayyaz Ahmed on Tuesday, Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry said the Supreme Court had laid to rest the doctrine of necessity. He said the SC, through its verdict in the Sindh High Court Bar Association case, had laid to rest the doctrine of necessity for the first time on July 31, 2007.
The CJP said the verdict also foreclosed the possibility of extra-constitutional regimes in future. “This landmark judgement is a lesson in constitutional history as it has built a new constitutional nexus between Articles 238 and 239 and Article 6 read with Article 237 of the constitution, for the protection and preservation of the 1973 constitution,” he noted. He said Justice Ahmed was also a member of the seven-member CS bench that had issued the restraining order of November 3, 2007, restraining the superior courts’ judges from taking oath under the extra-constitutional dispensation, as a mark of loyalty to the constitution.
“This historic and watershed verdict changed the constitutional and political outlook of the country as it established a precedent wherein no constitutional deviation was to be endorsed by the judiciary under any circumstances,” he observed. He said while rendering judgments in these famous cases, the SC observed that it was SC’s function to protect and uphold the constitution. “The court further observed that the constitution of Pakistan mandates that there shall be democratic governance in the country, wherein principles of democracy, freedom, equality, tolerance and social justice, as enunciated by Islam, shall be fully observed,” he said.