President Asif Ali Zardari has appointed Justice Aminuddin Khan as the first Chief Justice of the Federal Constitutional Court.

According to an official notification on Thursday, President Asif Ali Zardari approved the appointment on the advice of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. Justice Aminuddin Khan, who previously led the Supreme Court’s constitutional bench, will now head the newly created Federal Constitutional Court.

The Federal Constitutional Court was established under the 27th Constitutional Amendment, passed by Parliament to redefine the jurisdiction of constitutional cases and separate them from the Supreme Court’s regular workload.

Senior judges resign

The amendment has sparked major controversy within the judiciary. Senior Supreme Court judges, Justice Mansoor Ali Shah and Justice Athar Minallah, have resigned in protest, describing the new arrangement as a “blow to the Constitution.”

Justice Mansoor Ali Shah, in his resignation addressed to the President, stated that the 27th Amendment “has distanced justice from the common man and made the judiciary subordinate to the government.”

He added that the amendment undermines judicial independence and included verses by poet Ahmed Faraz in his letter to express his dismay.

Justice Athar Minallah, the second judge to step down, termed the amendment a “death of the Constitution.” He wrote that he could not remain silent when “the Constitution is now just a shadow” and asserted that continuing to serve under these conditions would violate his oath.