Judicial review Ghulam Mohammad's action was condoned by the federal judiciary in particular by
Justice Munir in the case
Federation of Pakistan v. Maulvi Tamizuddin Khan. Justice Munir, ruled in favour of the dismissal in the
Maulvi Tamizuddin Khan's case, declaring that the Assembly was not a sovereign body. Munir declared that the Constitutional Assembly had "lived in a fool's paradise if ever seized with the notion that it was the sovereign body of the state." According to Munir, the independence
Muhammad Ali Jinnah gained for his country was restricted by the prerogative rights of
the Crown. He adopted the argument made to the court by
Lord Diplock that Pakistan did not become independent in 1947; it had attained a status the same as that Munir felt the senior Dominions possessed, virtually indistinguishable from independence. The conclusion reached by
Justice Cornelius in his dissenting opinion was entirely different. He answered Munir's interpretation of Commonwealth history with his own understanding of the meaning of a dominion. He maintained that the historical fact was that Pakistan had been created with complete independence, and he pointed to what he believed to be clear differences in the status of the senior dominions and the new dominion of Pakistan. Cornelius stressed that Pakistan was an independent state. According to Allen McGrath, author of the ''Destruction of Pakistan's Democracy'', when Munir denied the existence of the Assembly's sovereignty, he destroyed Pakistan's existing constitutional basis. He did further harm when he did not indicate where sovereignty resided. He thereby created a vacuum which was an opportunity for Ghulam Mohammad. To support Ghulam Mohammad's use of non-constitutional emergency powers, Munir found it necessary to move beyond the constitution to what he claimed was the common law, to general legal maxims, and to English historical precedent. He relied on Bracton's maxim "that which is otherwise not lawful is made lawful by necessity", and the Roman law maxim urged by Jennings, "the well-being of the people is the supreme law." This was to be used as legal justification for all subsequent martial laws. This coup marked the end of the
Muslim League created by
Muhammad Ali Jinnah and the beginning of the overt assumption of power by the Pakistan bureaucracy with the military's assistance. By 1958 the military was to
step in openly. == See also ==