Pakistan’s 27th Amendment Faces Outcry as Military Power Grows and Courts Lose Authority
27th Amendment crowns army chief as untouchable supreme ruler.
Pakistan's 27th Constitutional Amendment, ratified on November 13, 2025, delivers a devastating blow to the nation's foundational legal framework by enshrining lifetime legal immunity for the President and Army Chief, consolidating all military branches under a unified command structure, severely curtailing the Supreme Court's authority, and prohibiting judicial review of future amendments. Far from a measured reform, this legislation systematically dismantles the pillars of constitutional governance, transforming the 1973 Constitution from a bulwark of democratic principles into an instrument of authoritarian control.
At the epicenter of this seismic shift stands Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir, the army chief elevated to Chief of Defence Forces by month's end, wielding unprecedented oversight over the army, navy, and air force while shielded from any form of accountability. Promoted to his rare five-star rank following the May 2025 border skirmish with India, Munir—once dubbed President Donald Trump's "favorite field marshal"—now embodies the ascendancy of militarism over civilian rule. Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar has publicly hailed him as the "hero of the whole nation," justifying the protections as essential for national security amid ongoing insurgencies in Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
This development echoes the praetorian dynamics that have repeatedly undermined Pakistan's republican experiment, akin to the Roman Praetorian Guard's evolution from imperial protectors to throne-makers or the Ottoman Janissaries' stranglehold on sultans until their violent dissolution. Scholar Ayesha Siddiqa's seminal analysis in Military Inc. exposes the armed forces' entrenched economic empire—spanning vast real estate, industries, and conglomerates—as a self-perpetuating force that distorts governance and erodes democratic institutions. By institutionalizing military dominance through constitutional fiat, the amendment not only insulates this "Milbus" apparatus but elevates it to sovereign status, rendering civilian oversight obsolete.
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The amendment's most insidious provisions dismantle judicial safeguards, abolishing the Supreme Court's original jurisdiction, establishing a compliant Federal Constitutional Court with executive-nominated judges, and empowering the President to shuffle High Court benches. Such maneuvers—stripping away the judiciary's role as constitutional sentinel—mirror fascist tactics to neuter dissent and consolidate power. Two Supreme Court justices resigned in protest, decrying the changes as a death knell for judicial independence and the rule of law, leaving Parliament as a mere rubber stamp incapable of curbing executive overreach.
In this calculated inversion, classical liberal ideals of reasoned consent, separation of powers, and equality under law yield to a hierarchy of command and coercion, heralding the eclipse of Pakistan's constitutional republic. Unless reversed, the 27th Amendment foretells not mere institutional decay but the outright extinction of the 1973 charter, supplanted by a militarized edifice that glorifies force as the essence of statehood. Munir's elevation signals the final triumph of the barracks over the ballot, consigning Pakistan's democratic aspirations to historical oblivion.
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