Pakistan's 21st amendment and the basic structure doctrine

Legally India has published this student comment on the 2015 decision of the Supreme Court of Pakistan upholding the 21st amendment against a claim that it violated the basic structure of the Constitution. The post, by Aratrika Choudhuri, a student at the National University of Juridical Sciences, Kolkata, is titled The Curious Case of Salient Features: Exploring the Current Relevance of the Basic Structure Doctrine in Pakistan. The author observes:

While the 902 page judgment has been hailed as an ostensibly favorable instance of the current trend of Asian nations (e.g. Bangladesh) to uphold the Basic Structure Doctrine (“BSD”), an in-depth analysis shows that the BSD was not adopted in Pakistan in an identical manner to India. In fact, a different doctrine was developed and upheld -- the Salient Features Doctrine (“SFD”). Due to the considerable befuddlement surrounding this area, this essay analyses the SCP’s interpretation of SFD in the understanding of Pakistan’s unique politico-constitutional history, and critiques its understanding of the differences between BSD and SFD.