LAHORE (The Thursday Times) — Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani, one of the six Islamabad High Court judges who accused Pakistan’s intelligence agencies of interfering in the judiciary, resigned from the Lahore High Court on Wednesday, saying the 26th and 27th Constitutional Amendments had “compromised the independence and institutional integrity” of the high courts.
In his resignation letter to the president, seen by Dawn, Kayani cited personal reasons, including his health after a recent surgery, and “reasons of conscience”. “I have witnessed what I regard as the executive’s growing control over judicial institutions, extending to the appointment and transfer of judges,” he wrote. “Such interference has, in my assessment, seriously eroded public confidence in judicial independence and the fairness of the judicial process.”
He said his years on the bench were “among the most meaningful and fulfilling” of his life, and that he had decided more than 23,000 cases while trying to “administer justice without fear or favour”.
One of the six
Kayani was among the six Islamabad High Court judges who wrote to the Supreme Judicial Council in March 2024 alleging that the intelligence services had pressured and intimidated judges in politically sensitive cases. The military has repeatedly denied interfering in judicial or political matters.
As the Islamabad High Court’s senior puisne judge, he had been expected to become its chief justice. Instead, Justice Sardar Muhammad Sarfraz Dogar was transferred in from the Lahore High Court and now heads the court. Kayani and other senior judges challenged those transfers and later accused the chief justice’s office of becoming a “monocracy”; the Supreme Court’s constitutional bench upheld the transfers.
Moved without consent, then sidelined
In April, the Judicial Commission of Pakistan voted nine to four to move Kayani to the Lahore High Court, alongside Justice Babar Sattar, sent to Peshawar, and Justice Saman Rafat Imtiaz, sent to Karachi. All three had signed the 2024 letter. It was the first use of the 27th Amendment to transfer high court judges, which removed the need for a judge’s consent.
In Lahore, Kayani dropped to 12th on the seniority list and was never placed on a division bench. Days before his resignation, a reshuffle sent him to preside over a single bench at the Rawalpindi registry. The 27th Amendment also created a Federal Constitutional Court in place of the Supreme Court for constitutional cases, and two Supreme Court judges resigned in protest when it was passed.
