'Failure to implement Pak court orders would be tantamount to violation of Constitution'

Islamabad, Aug 10 (PTI) A senior judge of Pakistan’s Supreme Court on Saturday warned that failure to implement the court orders would be tantamount to violation of the Constitution.

Justice Mansoor Ali Shah is the puisne judge and in the line to succeed the incumbent Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa later this year, and he issued the warning while addressing a conference regarding minority rights.

“It is not possible that a Supreme Court judgement is left unimplemented...let us make this clear that this can never happen that a Supreme Court judgement is not implemented. This cannot happen. It would be a constitutional violation if this was (even) thought about,” he said.

“Executive institutions have to recognise that they have no choice but to comply with the orders of the Supreme Court. I’m not saying this but the Constitution”.

The judge clarified that that the Supreme Court drew its authority from the Constitution, added that no one had the “choice to say this is not right or (it is) wrong".

Justice Shah said the Constitution clearly stated that the judgements of a court should be implemented and there was no way to go against it unless the constitution was changed.

“Any verdict cannot be disregarded or delayed otherwise you will uproot the entire legal system and you will upset the balance of the Constitution if you set out on this track that judgements should not be implemented. This is not possible,” he said.

His remarks came just days after the parliament passed a law to amend the laws to restrict the choice of independent candidates to exercise the right to join a party. The law apparently aimed to circumvent a court decision of July 12 where it declared that independent lawmakers could join the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf.   Justice Shah indirectly referred to the new law by saying that no action should be taken to dilute the concept of separation of powers of state organs.

“It is our obligation to maintain this balance and there should be no executive overreach of any kind,” he said, adding that implementing court orders was not a “courtesy” or a “burden” but a “responsibility and constitutional obligation that you have to follow”.

Already the PTI challenged the new law in the court and many believe that it may not stand the judicial scrutiny due to its timing. PTI SH  AMS