A simple resolution in the Pakistani parliament will be enough to reinstate the judges sacked by President Pervez Musharraf during last year’s emergency rule, according to eight former judges and three chief justices of the Supreme Court.

“A simple resolution in the National Assembly... would provide more than sufficient backing for the executive to do the needful,” the former judges said in a joint statement.

“The removal of judges, which was admittedly unconstitutional being in defiance of Article 209 of the Constitution, could not be validated by the unilateral act of one individual through the so called introduction of Article 270-AAA,” they said.

The statement was signed by former chief justices Ajmal Mian, Sajjad Ali Shah and Saiduzzaman Siddiqui Nasir and former judges Aslam Zahid, Kamal Mansour Alam, Fakhruddin G Ebrahim, Deedar Hussain Shah and Mamoon Qazi.

The former judges repeatedly asserted that “no principle of state necessity” allowed an individual to “make permanent changes in the supreme law”.

“Even if an individualised power to amend were to be conceded, such power can only be available during the emergency, and not thereafter...” the joint statement said. The statement also said amendments made by Ziaul Haq in 1985 and by Musharraf in 2002 had become part of the Constitution only after being  adopted by a two-third majority in parliament.