ISLAMABAD: Defence Minister Khawaja Asif on Friday fiercely defended the 27th constitutional amendment on the floor of the National Assembly, lambasting the judiciary for what he termed a “black and horrible” past role in the country’s history.

Speaking on a point of order amid a noisy protest by the opposition, Mr Asif singled out former judges Mansoor Ali Shah and Athar Minallah for resigning from the Supreme Court after the amendment’s passage.

Mr Asif alleged they have “forgotten their past” and were now posturing as “guardians of democracy”.

“Their [SC judges] conscience has awakened only after their monopoly was curtailed,” he said, criticising the judiciary’s role in the 2017 removal of the Nawaz Sharif government. He accused Supreme Court judges at the time of being part of a conspiracy against Sharif.

“The entire process started with the Panama case when [the then] chief justice Saqib Nisar formed two benches that declared Nawaz Sharif ineligible to hold office,” Mr Asif said, adding that another bench, led by Justice Nisar, later decided Sharif’s ineligibility would be for life.

Calls legal system’s historical role ‘black, horrible’

He said the same judicial figures were consistently seen deciding all major political cases. “When these kangaroo courts were being formed, Nawaz Sharif was being victimised, and an agenda was being implemented that he would not remain a leader and would be expelled from politics forever; at that time, no one felt any shame,” the minister said.

The minister claimed the judiciary’s history, from the hanging of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto to validating all military takeovers, has been a “horrible and black” role unseen in any other part of the world. He also made personal remarks about Athar Minallah, noting he had served in a provincial cabinet under military dictator Gen Pervez Musharraf.

“These judges from yesterday were serving in the SC and high courts back then; now they’re writing poetry and issuing political statements,” Mr Asif said, in an apparent reference to a poem in Justice Shah’s resignation letter.

The verbal attack came shortly after Justice Aminuddin took the oath as the first chief justice of the newly formed Federal Constitutional Court. Mr Asif said the 27th Amendment would ensure justice and help resolve constitutional matters transparently.

Turning to the protesting PTI members, Mr Asif accused them of having “selective amnesia”, recalling how 52 bills were passed in 30 minutes under the PTI government and how Imran Khan dissolved the assembly amid a no-confidence motion. Referring to the slogan “if there is no Khan, there is no Pakistan”, Mr Asif said it proved “they don’t stand with the Constitution of Pakistan but instead with an individual”.

“They [PTI members] are sympathisers of terrorists who come from across the border and carry out bloodshed and destruction here,” the minister alleged, adding that no one from the PTI had condemned recent terrorist attacks.

After the minister, PTI’s Asad Qaiser took the floor and expressed concern over a recent drone attack on a wedding in KP. “I want to ask, are the people of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa citizens of Pakistan or not?” he asked, adding that “drone attacks and collateral damage are not acceptable to us”.

Meanwhile, the government introduced four bills in the assembly: the Port Qasim Authority (Amendment) Bill, 2025; the Gwadar Port Authority (Amendment) Bill 2025; the Newspaper Employees (Conditions of Service) (Amendment) Bill, 2025; and the Associated Press of Pakistan Corporation (Amendment) Bill, 2025.

Published in Dawn, November 15th, 2025