A specter of profound and perilous change haunts Pakistan’s military and political landscape, embodied in the Constitution 27th Amendment (Twenty-Seventh Amendment) Act, 2025, which has already passed the National Assembly and Senate with a two-thirds majority. This is no mere administrative reshuffle or simple legislative update; it is a meticulous and audacious re-engineering of the Pakistani state itself, a constitutional coup executed not with tanks and generals in the streets, but with legislative text and parliamentary votes.

The amendment executes a two-pronged assault on the nation’s democratic architecture, simultaneously subjugating the judiciary and coronating the military. It seeks to dismantle the traditional checks and balances that form the bedrock of any democratic society, creating a new constitutional order where judicial independence is systematically curtailed and military authority is not just paramount, but permanently and unassailably entrenched.

This move, as analyzed from both a military-strategic and a constitutional-legal perspective, signals a deliberate turn away from the principles of civilian supremacy and the separation of powers, charting a perilous course towards a formalized, constitutional praetorianism that threatens to transform Pakistan from a struggling democracy into a militarized state with a democratic facade.

The first pillar of this new architecture is the systemic dismantling of the judiciary as an independent check on state power. The amendment’s most audacious move is the creation of a new Federal Constitutional Court (FCC), a body that effectively usurps the Supreme Court’s historical role as the final arbiter of constitutional questions and fundamental rights.

Through the rewriting of Article 175 and related provisions, the Supreme Court is to be “dethroned” and relegated to the status of a mere appellate court for civil and criminal matters, a body some legal experts have derisively termed a “Supreme District Court.” The new FCC’s decisions will be binding on all other judicial bodies, including the Supreme Court itself, creating what amounts to a judicial hierarchy where the Supreme Court, once the apex of Pakistan’s legal system, is now subordinate to a newly created body.

This represents a radical restructuring that senior former judges and leading lawyers have warned would “permanently denude” the Supreme Court of its constitutional jurisdiction, something they say no civilian or military regime has previously attempted in Pakistan’s history.

The implications of this shift are profound and far-reaching. Historically, the Supreme Court of Pakistan has been the final arbiter on constitutional questions, federal-provincial disputes, and fundamental-rights petitions under Article 184(3). It has been the forum where the opposition, civil society, and ordinary citizens could challenge constitutional amendments, emergency powers, and authoritarian measures. By shifting this power to a new Federal Constitutional Court whose design is more heavily shaped by the executive and parliamentary majority, the amendment weakens the classic separation of powers and creates a parallel and superior court that is more susceptible to political influence.

The 27th Constitutional Amendment after incorporating changes recommended by the Standing Committee.

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— Benazir Shah (@Benazir_Shah) November 11, 2025

The FCC will exclusively hear federal-provincial and inter-provincial disputes and key constitutional questions, and critics fear that in the hands of a central government closely aligned with the military establishment, the FCC could tilt systematically in favor of the federation, eroding the spirit of the 18th Amendment’s devolution of powers to provinces. Over time, provincial autonomy could be hollowed out judicially rather than by openly amending the devolution clauses, representing a centralization of power in Islamabad that undermines the federal character of the Pakistani state.

To further cement executive control over the judiciary, the amendment introduces subtle but powerful mechanisms for influence that go beyond the mere creation of a new court. The amendment empowers the president, on recommendation of the Judicial Commission of Pakistan, to transfer High Court judges, with a judge refusing transfer deemed to have retired. This creates a chilling effect on judicial independence, as any “troublesome” judge who makes decisions unfavorable to the government or military can be moved, with refusal meaning forced retirement.

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The allure of power is made even more tangible by granting FCC judges a higher retirement age of 68 compared to 65 for Supreme Court judges, and by placing the Chief Justice of the FCC above the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court in the order of precedence. This creates a new judicial hierarchy where ambitious judges may prefer aligning with the........

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