Pakistan’s 27th constitutional amendment, rushed through Parliament and signed by its president last week, is the latest sign of how the country’s elite is dropping even the pretence of a civilian democracy. The amendment creates a new Federal Constitutional Court and gives the executive effective control over the selection of its judges. The Federal Constitutional Court appears to have been designed to reduce the influence of the Supreme Court, the one institution that has at times stood up to the country’s military Establishment and political leaders. Separately, the amendment changes Article 243 of the Constitution that governs the relationship between the military and the civilian leadership. The amendment grants lifelong immunity from criminal prosecution to five-star-ranked military officers. In effect, that provision is meant to safeguard Field Marshal Asim Munir, the country’s current army chief. Mr Munir is the only five-star officer in Pakistan, and only the second in its history after the late military dictator, Ayub Khan. It will need a two-thirds majority to remove a five-star officer even though an elected government can be ousted if it loses a simple majority in Parliament. Such a provision places Mr Munir and future five-star officers on a pedestal higher than the civilian leadership they are ostensibly supposed to report to.
The amendment creates a new position, the Chief of Defence Forces, and makes clear that the army chief will concurrently hold this office. This measure formalises the army chief’s control over Pakistan’s navy and air force too. The Pakistani military has been the country’s most powerful institution since 1947. Still, in the past, major political parties like the Pakistan Peoples Party, for instance, have tried to resist further consolidation of the military’s power. This time, however, the PPP, an alliance partner of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, has gone along with the amendment without even a whimper. Despite protests and criticism from civil society groups, the Opposition and even some sitting judges, the government got the amendment through Parliament. The amendment is portentous for Pakistan’s fledgling democracy: it is also consistent with the challenges democracy is facing in the subcontinent wherein Bangladesh and Nepal have witnessed pushbacks in the form of popular protests. India will take note of this development too. With Mr Munir’s shadow lengthening in the corridors of power, New Delhi cannot afford to be complacent about its already troubled ties with Pakistan.