Constitutions are drafted to protect a nation’s foundational principles, not to weaken or distort them. When Pakistan’s framers sat down in 1973 to write a new social contract for a country still reeling from the loss of East Pakistan, they understood that a Constitution must be flexible enough to evolve, yet firm enough to guard against authoritarian impulses. Amendments were to serve as careful refinements, not weapons to undermine the document’s core spirit.

Yet Pakistan’s constitutional history tells another story. Instead of slow, democratic maturation, our amendments have largely been authored by military strongmen or governments operating under heavy institutional pressure. The high points of constitutionalism in Pakistan have been rare and born of tragedy: first in 1973, when the nation needed a fresh start, and then in 2010, when the 18th Amendment emerged from political consensus forged after the trauma of Benazir Bhutto’s assassination. These were the only two moments when Parliament acted not out of self-interest, but out of national responsibility.

The Promise of the 18th Amendment

The 18th Amendment remains the most significant democratic reform since independence. It restored parliamentary supremacy by stripping the Presidency of its destabilising power to summarily dissolve elected governments — a tool repeatedly used by authoritarian regimes to reset the political order. It strengthened provincial autonomy, devolving powers to local governments in a way that finally reflected Pakistan’s federal character.

It also depoliticised judicial appointments by restoring seniority as the guiding principle for selecting the Chief Justice of Pakistan. For a brief moment, political parties that had long treated each other as existential enemies managed to work together. The amendment symbolised a rare democratic........

© The Friday Times