ISLAMABAD: A dissenting but minority judgement by six judges of the Supreme Court against the majority judgement of 11 judges has declared the 21st Amendment as well as trials of the accused by military courts as illegal and unconstitutional, according to local media sources.
In his dissenting note, Justice Jawwad S. Khawaja held that the 21st Amendment was liable to be struck down since parliament was not a sovereign or supreme body in the sense that there were no limitations on its power to amend the constitution.
“The limitations on the parliament are not only political but are borne out from the constitution itself,” he observed.
He said the Supreme Court had the power to judicially review a constitutional amendment passed by the parliament and to strike it down where appropriate. But Article 175A as amended by the 19th Amendment is not liable to be struck down as it does not transgress the limitations of parliamentary power to amend the constitution.