MANAGEMENT OF CLIMATE CONSTITUTIONALISM: EMBEDDING ENVIRONMENTAL RIGHTS IN THE JUDICIAL SYSTEM OF PAKISTAN

Abstract

Ecological conservation has been affirmed as a constitutional obligation and individual liberty, especially in countries like Pakistan facing heightened vulnerability to global warming. The present paper will explore how the concept of climate constitutionalism came into being in Pakistan and how environmental rights have been integrated into the judicial system. It follows the conceptual change of the traditional approach to environmental regulation to a rights-based constitutional protection of the environment and reviews the constitutional, legislative, and judicial landscape in Pakistan. Great emphasis is laid on the judicial interpretation of Article 9 and Article 14, environmental PIL, and prominent cases such as Shehla Zia vs. WAPDA and Asghar Leghari vs. Federation of Pakistan. The analysis also takes into account the constitutional importance of the Twenty-Sixth Constitutional Amendment (2024), which explicitly guarantees the right of all citizens to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment. The paper highlights persistent problems such as federal-provincial fragmentation, limitations on institutional capacities, inadequate enforcement, technical difficulties, access to justice issues, and judicial vs separation of powers concerns. It suggests that the judiciary can enhance climate constitutionalism in Pakistan through the creation of a coherent jurisprudence of Article 9A, growth of environmental rights-related litigation, integration of the precautionary and inter-generational principles, improving judicial capacities, and introducing robust monitoring mechanisms for governmental compliance. The study concludes that constitutional recognition needs to be supported and coordinated by institutions, scientific capabilities and enforceable judicial remedies, to bring environmental rights from the formal constitutional guarantee to real protection for current and future generations.