EDITORIAL: Justice Athar Minallah’s recent address at the Karachi Bar Association was a spirited critique of Pakistan’s constitutional failings, particularly the pervasive culture of institutional overreach and political manipulation. His blunt assertion that talk of a “hybrid system” amounts to an admission of unconstitutional governance that strikes at the heart of the country’s ongoing democratic crisis.
In Pakistan, where unelected power centres often wield more influence than the nation’s elected representatives, this statement exposes the deep contradiction between the country’s constitutional ideals and its political reality.
The concept of a “hybrid system”, where unelected forces covertly control elected governments, is a flagrant violation of the democratic principles enshrined in the Constitution. Yet, this idea continues to be endorsed by self-serving politicians, including a sitting federal minister. This contradiction undermines the core values of democracy and public accountability.
The most compelling part of Justice Minallah’s remarks was his emphasis on the fact that the foundation of our Constitution is the people’s right to rule. He reminded the audience that every authority in Pakistan — whether judicial, executive, legislative or military — has taken an oath to uphold the Constitution.
Yet, this oath is routinely ignored in the political arena, where the will of the people is frequently undermined. Elections should be a free and fair exercise of a democratic right, but are regularly tainted by manipulation, intimidation, and interference.
Justice Minallah’s lament that this has remained nothing more than a dream for the Pakistani people is a damning indictment of a system that has failed to deliver the most basic democratic right to its citizens. Justice Minallah’s candid reflections on the judiciary’s role in these systemic failures were equally significant.
He contrasted the majority of judges who bowed to authoritarian pressures with the few who upheld the rule of law, even at great personal risk. One of the most shameful episodes he revisited was the 1979 execution of former Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.
Justice Minallah recalled that some of the judges involved in Bhutto’s trial later admitted — more openly, Justice Nasim Hassan Shah, who went on to become Chief Justice of Pakistan — that they had “sent him to the gallows under pressure.” This case remains one of the most tragic judicial episodes in Pakistan’s history, where the country’s highest courts, both in Lahore and Islamabad, became willing tools of a usurper rather than defenders of justice. To their credit, however, three Supreme Court judges stood their ground in the face of pressure.
Two of these dissenting judges were from Sindh, and one hailed from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly NWFP). They will always be remembered for their courage, in stark contrast to the majority’s compliance, to serve the ends of justice in an extremely hostile environment.
Justice Minallah also recalled the landmark Maulvi Tamizuddin case of 1955, in which five judges of the Sindh High Court restored the First Constituent Assembly of Pakistan that had been illegally dissolved by Governor General Ghulam Muhammad.
The decision was ultimately overturned by the Federal Court. Justice Minallah argued that had the ruling of those five judges been upheld, “Pakistan would not have seen 77 years of dictatorship. Instead, the rule of law would have prevailed”. At least, that might have changed, a lot better, the course of the country’s history.
Our power elites must stop pretending that a hybrid system of governance is democratic or constitutional. The only legitimate path forward is one firmly rooted in unadulterated constitutionalism, the rule of law, and democratic accountability. This requires an end to political engineering, a judiciary that resists external pressures, and elections that genuinely reflect the will of the people. Until these conditions are met, democracy in Pakistan will remain a dream deferred by decades of compromise and subservience.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2025