No choice but to comply with SC orders: Justice Mansoor

ISLAMABAD: Supreme Court’s senior judge Mansoor Ali Shah has stressed the importance of implementing the top court’s verdicts, saying that there is no option to “disregard or delay” the judgements.

“The SC verdict cannot be disregarded or delayed or else the entire legal system will be disrupted and the balance of Constitution will be out if you seek non-implementation of judgements,” the senior puisne judge said Saturday while addressing a seminar on ‘Rights of minorities and challenges for implementing court’s decisions’ in Islamabad.

“I want to underline that Supreme Court’s judgements [always] get implemented and it is the structure of the Constitution,” Justice Shah said, stressing that there has never been a case where an apex court verdict was not implemented.

He said that not implementing the SC rulings would be “a violation of the Constitution”.

“There is no choice but to comply with the Supreme Court’s orders,” he added.

The SC judge further stated that implementation of judgements was the structure of Constitution as the top court draws the authority to decide the matters from the Constitution, which is the supreme law of the land, instead of any other document

“No one has the choice to call it [SC rulings] ‘wrong’ or ‘not right’. The Constitution says that this is a judgement and it has to be implemented,” he said.

Justice Mansoor went on to say that those who have any objection to the Supreme Court’s verdict can change the entire structure of the Constitution “but right now this is how it is”.

He said that disregarding the apex court’s rulings was also “against the separation of powers”.

“Separation of powers is the core component of democracy which shouldn’t be disturbed. This is not a burden or a courtesy that you have to do, but a constitutional obligation that needs to be fulfilled.

“This is a delicate equilibrium which needs to be respected. We have an obligation to keep this equilibrium in balance and there shouldn’t be any executive overreach. No one has the choice or the prerogative to second guess if the judgement is right or wrong,” the justice said.

He said that only the SC had the prerogative to decide a matter and after that the judgement has to be implemented. There will be severe consequences if the constitutional duty of implementing the SC’s orders is not fulfilled, he added.

“And I am saying this because we have observed that a decision being made but not being implemented after a long time, but it will not happen,” he said.

“We will also see this decision and I assure you that when I have the authority, we will also implement this decision,” he added.Justice Mansoor said that in Pakistan, 96.3 percent are Muslims, Hindus are 1.6 percent, Christians are 1.6 percent, and other religions are less than one percent.

The judge further said that minorities are only in terms of numbers but they have equal rights with Muslims in the Constitution, adding that after Islam, the Constitution of Pakistan also provides protection to minorities while our founder Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah emphasized the rights of minorities.

He said that the Supreme Court had ensured the protection of five percent quota for minorities in the case of Mubarak Ali.

Later, in an informal conversation with journalists, Justice Mansoor said that detailed decision is being written in the reserved seats for women and minorities case and would be discussed with most of the judges after the summer vacations.

To a question, the senior apex court judge said that he was not interested in his early notification as Chief Justice of Pakistan, adding that when the time comes, the notification will be released.

On this occasion, he corrected and said that he was called Acting Chief Justice of Pakistan, which is not correct, adding that he is a senior judge and not acting chief justice.

“Justice Qazi Feaz Isa is the Chief Justice of Pakistan and he is my friend,” Justice Mansoor said, adding that Justice Isa is healthy and strong and may Allah bless him. When asked whether the decision of the Supreme Court could be set aside through legislation, Justice Mansoor Ali Shah avoided a reply.

It may be noted that the ruling parties recently passed the Elections (Second Amendment) Bill 2024 in parliament which seeks to ‘circumvent’ the Supreme Court’s July 21 ruling that declared Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) a political party and eligible for reserved seats.

The apex court’s full bench on July 21 ruled in favour of the Imran Khan-founded party in the reserved seats case, paving the way for its return to parliament and effectively depriving the PMLN-led coalition government of its two-thirds majority in parliament.

Justice Mansoor had announced the 8-5 majority verdict of the SC full bench, which declared the PTI eligible to receive reserved seats for women and minorities.