Pakistan’s 27th Constitutional Amendment (2025) marks the most catastrophic rupture in its constitutional history. By granting lifetime immunity to the President and the Army Chief, centralising all armed services under a new unified command, crippling the Supreme Court’s authority, and abolishing judicial review of constitutional amendments, it does not reform the Constitution; it maims and mutilates it.
This moment represents the triumph of militarism over constitutionalism, of fascistic hierarchy over the dream of classical liberalism, of command over consent, and of vertical barracks authority over horizontal democratic power-sharing in Pakistan. Presiding over this historic mutation is Field Marshal Asim Munir — Pakistan’s new Caesar, the terminator of the Republic. The entire constellation of constitutional ideals and institutions has surrendered before Pakistan’s new “el Chivo.”
Classical liberal constitutionalism is rooted in the rule of law, reasoned consent, equality before the law, checks and balances, and the separation of powers. It reflects a social contract grounded in logic, debate, and the belief that no one is above the Constitution.
Militarism, by contrast, embodies the fascistic spirit — hierarchy, obedience, concentration of power, glorification of force, and the imposition of command rather than persuasion. If constitutionalism is the philosophy of reason, militarism is the philosophy of raw power. They cannot coexist indefinitely. The 27th Amendment resolves this tension by annihilating whatever remained of Pakistan’s liberal constitutional terrain.
A Caesar in Uniform
Syed Asim Munir, the army chief whom U.S. President Donald Trump once called his “favorite field marshal,” is set to become Pakistan’s Chief of Defence Forces by the end of the month — a new title placing him above the navy and air force alike. Of the three “A”s that control Pakistan — Allah, Army, and America — the latter two are now firmly under his command and favour. (The first one seems to have long given up the failed nation!) Field Marshal Munir was promoted to that rank after the May conflict with India. Law Minister Azam Tarar has said the commander would be granted constitutional protection under the new amendment “because he is the hero of the whole nation.”
The amendment grants Munir lifetime immunity, lifetime rank and privileges, command of all three armed services, and enhanced authority through a new Chief of Defence Forces structure. Thus militarism is no longer a shadow power; it is the constitutional power. Hussain Haqqani foresaw this shift in Pakistan: Between Mosque and Military (2016) noting how Pakistan’s generals increasingly viewed themselves as “defenders of ideological as well as territorial frontiers.” Under the 27th Amendment, they become the guardians, interpreters, and enforcers of the constitutional order itself — a fascistic inversion of liberal constitutionalism.
The Praetorian Curse
Pakistan is not the first state to be devoured by its own guardians. Created to protect emperors, the Roman Praetorian Guard soon discovered it could make and unmake emperors. It assassinated rulers, auctioned the throne, and ultimately destabilised Rome from within -- the guardians became sovereigns. Similarly, the Janissaries of the Ottoman Empire — once elite infantry — eventually dictated state policy, blocked reforms, toppled sultans, and crippled the empire’s institutions until Mahmud II abolished them violently- the protectors became predators.
Ayesha Siddiqa’s Military Inc.: Inside Pakistan's Military Economy (2016) provides a pioneering study of Milbus — Pakistan’s vast, opaque, military-controlled economic empire. She argues that Pakistan’s armed forces are not merely a security institution but a military-capitalist class whose corporate interests profoundly distort the country’s politics, economy, and governance. Through extensive research, Siddiqa shows how the military’s control of agricultural land, real estate, foundations, industries, and commercial enterprises has entrenched a praetorian political order. This order reinforces military dominance, weakens civilian institutions, and incentivises perpetual political interference — a system that emerged after 1947, expanded under Ayub Khan, consolidated under Zia-ul-Haq, and reached new sophistication under Musharraf.
Siddiqa identifies the military-economy pattern with chilling clarity. She warns, “The military’s financial autonomy will increase an interest in strengthening and institutionalizing the organization’s dominant position in power politics. The institutionalizing of the military’s power does not bode well for the future of democracy in a country.”
She extends this critique through Ashis Nandy’s analysis of the modern state, noting: “Commentators like Ashis Nandy also view the state as a criminal enterprise which uses violence against its citizens in the name of national integrity. The common people tolerate the state’s authoritarian hand as a price for its maintaining security and cohesion.”
This observation captures Pakistan’s present condition with haunting precision. It is fighting two armed insurgencies in Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and is threatening war with neighbouring Afghanistan for allegedly harbouring militants who attack Pakistan. A population exhausted by insecurity, a state that sanctifies repression as patriotism, and a military whose coercive legitimacy expands whenever democratic institutions weaken — this is Pakistan’s grim reality. The 27th Amendment does not restrain this praetorian order; but enthrones it.
The Autoimmune Constitution
The 27th Amendment operates as an autoimmune attack on Pakistan’s constitutional body. Lifetime military immunity resembles malignant cells that cannot be removed, unified tri-service command resembles an immune system overreaction destroying vital organs, and abolition of judicial review destroys the antibodies that protect against internal decay. The Constitution is no longer a shield protecting the republic. It has become a weapon turned inward.
The most lethal clause of the 27th Amendment declares: No court may question the validity of any constitutional amendment on any ground whatsoever. This erases the central tenet of constitutionalism: the Constitution is supreme — not Parliament, not the executive, and not the military.
Without judicial review, the Constitution loses its identity, Parliament becomes sovereign in only theory but the military in practice, no basic principle is beyond amendment, democracy becomes revisable by simple political will. A Constitution that cannot defend itself is not a Constitution. It is a charter of domination, not a social contract of equals. This is the precise moment classical liberalism breathes its last painful sigh.
The amendment simultaneously strips the Supreme Court of original jurisdiction, creates a pliable Federal Constitutional Court, transfers all major constitutional petitions away from the Supreme Court, and allows the President to transfer High Court judges. These are classic fascist stratagems: neutralise courts, punish dissent, reward compliance.
The 27th Amendment has sealed the black warrant for the rule of law, judicial independence, and constitutionalism in the most abhorrent manner in the Islamic Republic. Asim Munir now occupies a position no Pakistani general has constitutionally held: supreme commander of all services, lifetime immunity, unified constitutional authority, a judiciary defanged, and a Parliament unable to restrain him. He has not seized power by coup. Power has been granted to him by constitutional design. He is Pakistan’s new Caesar — sculpted by amendment, insulated by immunity, elevated above the Republic.
An Elegy for the 1973 Constitution
The 27th Amendment represents the triumph of militarism (fascism) over constitutionalism (liberalism), the conversion of a rational social contract into a barracks code, the enthronement of a praetorian elite, the annihilation of judicial autonomy, and the coronation of a Caesar in uniform. It delivers the final coup de grâce to Pakistan’s constitutional project.
If the 27th Amendment is not reversed, the 1973 Constitution will not merely fail —it will cease to exist, replaced by a militarised charter that sanctifies hierarchy and coercive power as national destiny.
(The author is Deputy Law Secretary to the Government of Kerala. Views are personal.)
