Pakistan’s parliament on Thursday approved sweeping changes to its military and constitutional framework, clearing the path for Army Chief Field Marshal Asim Munir to become the country’s first Chief of Defence Forces (CDF).

The move follows Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari’s assent to the controversial 27th Constitutional Amendment — a decision that has redrawn the balance of power between the military, judiciary, and the executive.

According to the Pakistan Prime Minister’s Office, the amendments to the Army Act were meant to “align the armed forces’ laws” with the new Constitutional Amendment.

Law minister Azam Nazeer Tarar, defending the move in the National Assembly, said these were not fresh laws but adjustments to existing ones.

“The change in the Army Act is that the current Chief of Army Staff will concurrently be the Chief of Defence Forces [CDF],” Tarar said, adding that the CDF’s tenure would be five years from the date of appointment.

The change cements General Munir’s position as Pakistan’s most powerful man.

Promoted to the rank of Field Marshal just days after a brief military conflict with India, Munir is only the second officer in Pakistan’s history to receive the title, the first being Field Marshal Ayub Khan, who seized power in a 1958 coup.

Legal expert Hafiz Ahsan Khokar told Geo News that Munir’s fresh five-year term as CDF would begin once the new notification is issued. “The five-year tenure of CDF/COAS will begin with the new notification of appointment,” he said.

Munir, appointed Army Chief in 2024 for three years, will now see his authority expand far beyond the barracks.

The 27th Amendment also created new honorary military titles, Field Marshal, Marshal of the Air Force, and Admiral of the Fleet, and gave Parliament exclusive powers to revoke or impeach them.

The Pakistan PM, on the CDF’s recommendation, will appoint the commander of the National Strategic Command from the Army.

While the amendment strengthens the military’s institutional hold, it has triggered outrage in the judiciary.

Within hours of Zardari’s approval, two Supreme Court judges, Justices Mansoor Ali Shah and Athar Minallah, resigned in protest, calling the amendment an assault on Pakistan’s constitutional democracy.

Justice Shah, in a scathing resignation letter, called the amendment a “grave assault on the Constitution of Pakistan.”

“It dismantles the Supreme Court of Pakistan, subjugates the judiciary to executive control, and strikes at the very heart of our constitutional democracy,” he wrote. “By fracturing the unity of the nation’s apex court, it has crippled judicial independence and integrity, pushing the country back by decades... Such a disfigurement of the constitutional order is unsustainable and will, in time, be reversed - but not before leaving deep institutional scars.”

Justice Shah said his resignation was the only way to avoid legitimising what he described as a “constitutional wrong.”

“Staying on would not only amount to silent acquiescence in a constitutional wrong, but would also mean continuing to sit in a court whose constitutional voice has been muted. Serving in such a truncated and diminished court, I cannot protect the Constitution, nor can I even judicially examine the amendment that has disfigured it,” he wrote.

Justice Minallah’s resignation was equally direct.

“I had sworn to uphold ‘the Constitution,’ not merely ‘a constitution,’” he wrote. “Prior to the passage of the 27th Amendment, I wrote to the Chief Justice of Pakistan, expressing concern over what its proposed features meant for our constitutional order... Against a canvas of selective silence and inaction, those fears have now come to be.”

Minallah warned that Pakistan’s founding legal document had been hollowed out.

“The Constitution I swore to uphold is no more,” he wrote. “I can think of no greater assault on its memory than to pretend that, as new foundations are now laid, they rest upon anything other than its grave. What is left of it is a mere shadow; one that breathes neither its spirit, nor speaks the words of the people to whom it belongs.”

He added a stinging rebuke to the country’s judiciary: “These robes we wear are more than mere ornaments. They are to serve as a reminder of that most noble trust bestowed upon those fortunate enough to don them. Instead, throughout our history, they have too often stood as symbols of betrayal through silence and complicity alike.”

The government wasted no time moving ahead. After the amendment became law, Tarar introduced another bill to amend the judiciary’s Practice and Procedure Rules, passed by a majority in the National Assembly.

The law dissolves the existing Constitutional Benches and transfers their powers to a new Federal Constitutional Court. The Prime Minister will now recommend the Chief Justice of this new court, effectively reshaping the country’s judicial hierarchy.

Under the revised framework, the President will appoint both the Army Chief and the Chief of Defence Forces on the Prime Minister’s advice. The post of Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee will expire in November 2025.

The Chief of Defence Forces, who will also serve as Army Chief, will appoint the head of the National Strategic Command, always from the Army, in consultation with the Prime Minister.

The government can now promote officers to the lifetime ranks of Field Marshal, Marshal of the Air Force, and Admiral of the Fleet. Field Marshals, by law, will hold their titles for life.