Ahmer Jamil Khan

Author: Ahmer Jamil Khan

  • Open Letter on the Refusal of the President of Pakistan to Perform the Constitutional Functions of the Presidency

  • Dissolution of the National Assembly – Unconstitutional?

    In the face of a vote of no-confidence, which was expected to be a historic one in Pakistan, Imran Khan decided to plunge the country in a constitutional crisis, by ‘dismissing’ the vote of no-confidence, and by attempting to dissolve the National Assembly under Article 58 (1) of the Constitution of Pakistan. Before the vote, […]

  • Abuse of Accountability Law to curb Freedom of the Press

    Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman, the chief editor of Jang Group of Newspapers was arrested by the National Accountability Bureau even before the opening of an investigation into an offence that allegedly took place more than three decades ago. This could not be a more blatant attack on the Freedom of the Press in violation of not just Constitutionally protected rights of liberty and security of person by the state. The arrest is unlawful. Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman was arrested at the stage of “complaint verification”. He is not an accused in any case, nor is he under investigation. There is no provision in the National Accountability Ordinance, 1999, which empowers NAB to arrest him at this stage. That makes the arrest and detention on mere suspicion and without a formal charge, unlawful, and the resultant effect unconstitutional.

  • Talk on Law Making in Pakistan

    On 17th February 2020, I was invited by Prof. Severine Minot to give a talk on Law Making in Pakistan at Habib University. My talk was guided by the presentation below. It started with the classical question of what law is, and went on to discuss classical tripartite structure of the state: the Legislature, the […]

  • Travesty of Democracy

    Pakistan held its general elections in 2018, to select its third successive democratic government, after almost a decade of military dictatorship under the Musharraf era. Putting Things in Perspective Before the 2018 polls, when the PML-N was in power, the PTI protested: it alleged poll rigging and election engineering. The 2018 polls brought the PTI, […]

  • A Positivist Constitution?

    Is the Constitution of Pakistan Positivist in nature, or is it Naturalistic? It is easy to say it is Naturalistic right off the bat: the Constitution begins by vesting the sovereignty of not just this country, but that of the entire universe in Allah. The first sentence of the Preamble to the Pakistani Constitution reads: […]

  • Is an Immoral Law a Good Law?

    Is an Immoral Law a Good Law?

    Is an Immoral Law a Good Law? The question may be a misleading one; to clear this, I will not look into what the words moral (or immoral) or good might mean in this context, I would rather define them just as we begin. Moral, in this context would be concerned with the principles of […]

  • Does Right to Life include a Right to End Life?

    As part of my LLB, I wrote a research essay on Suicide and Assisted Suicide. The research essay was titled “Does Right to Life include a Right to End Life? Legal challenges to suicide and assisted suicide.” In the essay I explored the Right to Life, protected by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and […]

  • Will be Back, Soon!

    I have been away from blogging for quite some time. A long time really. Here’s why. My draft section is piling up. I usually begin writing, then leave it incomplete, saved as a draft, and, since I blog about current/political issues, it becomes irrelevant over time. I haven’t neglected this blog entirely. I’ve been updating the […]

  • The United Nations System for the Protection and Enforcement of Human Rights

    On 25th February 2016, I gave my Law Skills Portfolio presentation on the topic The United Nations System for the Protection and Enforcement of Human Rights. The presentation was is part of the Law Skills Portfolio which is a mandatory requirement for QLD for my Bachelors of Law degree from the University of London. I […]