Doctrine of Necessity, 26th Amendment and judicial review

The present study is a venture into the structural transformation of judicial power in Pakistan by tracing out its evolution from the Doctrine of Necessity to the 26th Constitutional Amendment. The judiciary has historically legitimized the extra-constitutional excesses of the executive on the basis of necessity jurisprudence. But post 2009, the judiciary shifted its stance and resorted to the doctrine of “Salient Features” to justify its autonomy. As a result, the parliament passed the 26th Amendment to create executive-backed Constitutional Benches, and to reshape the judicial appointments process to curtail judicial review. This paper seeks to consider if this is an appropriate example of parliamentary sovereignty.