Judicial Activism in Pakistan | CSS Pakistan Affairs Notes
Pakistan has had five constitutions in its seventy years history, of which four were indigenous. It has had fourteen different constitutional patterns formed since 1947 and had been governed under a suspended, modified constitution and restored constitutions. From 1999-2008, the state was governed under various legal devices including two Provisional Constitutional Orders (PCO) and a Legal Framework Order (LFO) while the Constitution was also amended in a significant way through the 17th Amendment. But in 2007, General Musharraf took an ill -advised step of suspending the Supreme Court (SC) Chief Justice who was reinstated by the court, while the next step of changing the Courts’ composition through the PCO eventually led Musharraf to leave power in August 2008. The dismissed judges were restored in March 2009 and in April 2010; the parliament passed the 18th Amendment restoring the constitution to a Prime Ministerial form of government.
The history of superior courts’ decisions had a direct bearing on the constitutional structure or the system and model for Pakistan’s judicial experience.