A dangerous power grab |
Pakistan’s political landscape has once again tilted sharply in favour of the military. The recently enacted 27th Constitutional Amendment ~ passed hurriedly through both houses of parliament in November 2025 ~ has fundamentally reshaped the country’s civil-military power structure and concentrated unprecedented authority in the hands of a single military leader: Field Marshal Asim Munir. For decades, Pakistan has been described as a “hybrid” state where elected governments operate under the shadow of the army. But this constitutional change has formalized what was once implicit, and risks steering the country toward outright military authoritarianism, with serious implications for Pakistan’s internal stability and regional peace.
The amendment creates the powerful new post of Chief of Defence Forces (CDF), which Munir now holds simultaneously with his position as Chief of Army Staff. With this dual command, he now exercises direct authority over the army, air force, and navy – a unified command system Pakistan has never had. It also abolishes the Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee, which at least symbolically allowed the civilian leadership to play a role in strategic and nuclear decisions. That vestige of shared authority has now disappeared. The changes are specifically tailored to secure Munir’s position. His tenure resets to five years starting from his appointment as CDF, meaning he will remain in office until 2030 and have significant influence over the next general election in 2029.
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More strikingly, his removal now requires a two-thirds parliamentary majority ~ a threshold higher than what is needed to remove the Prime Minister. The amendment also grants him lifelong immunity from prosecution, a privilege he uniquely enjoys as Pakistan’s only five-star military officer. In effect, parliament has locked itself out of any realistic oversight of the most powerful military leader since General Ayub Khan. These structural changes are not merely administrative; they represent the biggest shift in Pakistan’s........