2.4 Judiciary & Recent Constitutional Debates

📂 START HERE — Actual Subpages in Study Order

Open the two linked lessons below in this order. Past papers and MCQs follow at the end.

Role of the higher courts, the doctrine of necessity, and the 26th and 27th Amendments.

XXVII. The Recent Constitutional and Legal Debates

Role of Judiciary

📺 Directly Relevant YouTube Lecture Sources

Lecture index: YouTube — Post Partition Notes

Political Instability Era (1951–1956) — 1954 dissolution and the Tamizuddin case
8th Constitutional Amendment (1985) — 8th Amendment and 58-2(b) dismissals
The Musharraf Era (1999–2008) — Zafar Ali Shah case, 2007 emergency, Lawyers' Movement
PPP's Third Tenure (2008–2013) — judges restored; Gilani's disqualification (2012)
Current Tenure — Coalition Governments (2022–Present) — 26th and 27th Amendments

20-mark expansion:

Put the cases in two columns: judgments that legitimised unconstitutional rule vs judgments that checked it.
Quote article numbers (184(3), 175A, 177, 199) — examiners reward precision here.
Separate what an amendment says from arguments about its impact.

📝 CSS Past Papers 2014–2026 — 2.4 Judiciary & Recent Constitutional Debates

📊

Asked so far:

2 subjective questions (2017, 2026)

3 MCQs (2026)

Examiners like article numbers here. Full answers are on chapter page XXVII above.

Part-I — Past MCQs

1. (CSS 2026) Article ___ empowers the Supreme Court to enforce fundamental rights directly:

(A) 185(6)
(B) 187(2)
(C) Both A and B
(D) 184(3)
✅ (D) 184(3) — moved to the Federal Constitutional Court by the 27th Amendment.

2. (CSS 2026) Which amendment generated debate about judicial reforms?

(A) 26th
(B) 27th
(C) Both
(D) None
✅ (C) Both — 26th (Oct 2024: JCP, CJP selection, constitutional benches); 27th (Nov 2025: FCC, CDF).

3. (CSS 2026) The structure of the Supreme Court is given in Articles:

(A) 63–64
(B) 99
(C) 176–191
(D) None
✅ (C) 176–191 (Part VII, Chapter 2).

Part-II — Past Subjective Questions

1. CSS 2017 Q3 — Discuss the role of judiciary in the constitutional development of Pakistan. (20)

Outline

Introduction
Judgments legitimising unconstitutional rule
Judgments checking it
Judicial activism (2007–22)
Recent changes (2023–25)
Critical evaluation
Conclusion

Key points

Legitimising: Tamizuddin (1955), Dosso (1958), Nusrat Bhutto (1977), Zafar Ali Shah (2000)
Checking: Asma Jilani (1972), Benazir (1988), Nawaz Sharif (1993), Al-Jihad Trust (1996)
SHCBA (2009) buried the doctrine of necessity
Activism: Lawyers' Movement, 184(3), PMs disqualified (2012, 2017), basic structure (2015), 63-A (2022)
Recent: Practice and Procedure Act (2023), 26th and 27th Amendments

Verdict: the judiciary must be independent enough to check power and restrained enough to stay out of politics.

Full answer: CSS 2017 — Pakistan Affairs Paper (Solved)

2. CSS 2026 Q4 — Does the 27th Amendment strengthen or weaken constitutionalism and rule of law? (20)