Dawn
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15:05 Nov 13, 2025
This article was originally published on November 6, 2025, and has been replugged. “I looked around in that ceremony, at the majority of recipients, and realised the rot that had set in: a constitutional colossus like him being honoured in the company of pygmies and dwarves … we have violated our oath to uphold the Constitution, and the result is a stark regression in the judicial protection of human rights.” — Justice Shahid Karim on the conferment of Hilal-e-Imtiaz on the late Justice Fazal Karim, 17 November 2023 A year ago today, Qazi Faez Isa departed as the chief justice of Pakistan. His parting gift was to reverse the ruling on dissident votes in the parliament. This, we know, kicked the gates open to the 26th amendment, as once-unbothered lawmakers were promptly forced into voting for the judiciary’s funeral rites. The bill was passed, and the third branch was destroyed. But while obeying His Lordship’s decision, the unity regime felt free to disobey that of the other lordships in a different case — r...