��������

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Senate, the upper house of parliament, on Monday approved the 27th constitutional amendment that reshapes the country’s judiciary and military command, amid a protest by opposition lawmakers.

The amendment, introduced last week, makes sweeping changes to Pakistan’s constitutional framework. It rewrites Article 243 to create the new post of Chief of Defense Forces, while abolishing the long-standing position of Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee (CJCSC). Under the revised structure, the army chief will assume the constitutionally recognized top command of the armed forces.

The legislation also calls for the establishment of a Constitutional Court, reducing the powers of the country’s Supreme Court and introducing new procedures for the transfer of judges.

Opposition senators tore up copies of the bill and shouted slogans as Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar presented it, before staging a walkout. In a live broadcast of the proceedings, Senate Chairman Yousuf Raza Gilani conducted voting on each clause and announced the final count.

“I now announce the result of voting, 64 members are in favor of the motion regarding passage of the bill and none against it,” Gilani said. “So, the motion is carried by the votes of not less than two-thirds of the total membership of the Senate and consequently the bill stands passed.”

The government and its coalition partners secured a two-thirds majority in the vote, following the defection of two opposition members.

The opposition slammed the amendment as an “attack on democracy and civilian supremacy.”

Speaking to Arab News, Salman Akram Raja, secretary general of jailed former prime minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, said the government was “decimating” the Supreme Court of Pakistan with the amendment.

“They’re creating a new so-called constitutional court, which will be handpicked by the prime minister. The first chief justice and the first batch of judges will all be appointed by the prime minister, who will provide the names that will be notified by the president,” Raja said.

“It’s a complete capture of the judiciary.”

Ali Zafar, another senator from the PTI opposition party, accused the government of trying to “destroy” the judiciary and create “friction” between the center and provinces.

“Through the 27th amendment, they are trying to totally destroy the independence of the judiciary,” he said. “They are trying to create friction between the provinces and the federation by taking away the powers from the provinces that have been granted to the provinces under the 18th amendment and giving it to the federation.”

Sher Afzal Marwat, a PTI member of the National Assembly, said the new amendment would “seal the fate of democracy” in Pakistan because the only constitutional provision in the 1973 Constitution that ensured civilian supremacy was Article 243.

“Through this amendment, the authority and powers previously vested in the prime minister of Pakistan have now been transferred to the chief of defense, who is, of course, an army officer holding the command of the Chief of the Army Staff as well as the Air Chief Marshal,” he said.

“Under these circumstances, [all] power has been concentrated in one person, thereby undermining the balance essential to a democratic system.”

The government, however, hailed the amendment as “historic step.”

Addressing the House after the bill’s passage, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar described the legislation as part of an “unfinished agenda” of the 2006 ‘Charter of Democracy.’

The charter, endorsed by nearly all political parties at the time, aimed to strengthen democratic institutions and prevent military interventions in the country. It remains a significant chapter in Pakistan’s political history, symbolizing the potential for dialogue and reconciliation between political rivals.

“There was a desire to maintain balance and therefore a constitutional court is being established for the improvement of the judiciary,” Dar said. “The seniority of existing Supreme Court judges and the Chief Justice will remain unaffected by this amendment.”

He noted that the ceremonial rank of Field Marshal has now been incorporated into the constitution, creating room for a five-star rank in all three branches of the military.

Saifullah Abro, a senator of the PTI opposition party who voted in favor of the amendment, said he was proud of Pakistan’s army for defeating India in May clashes.

Abro, who resigned shortly after voting in favor of the bill, said he “voted only for Gen Syed Asim Munir (the army chief who was elevated to Field Marshal).”

Constitutional amendments in Pakistan require approval by two-thirds of both houses of parliament. Since its adoption in 1973, the Constitution has been amended over two dozen times, reflecting recurring power struggles among the civilian leadership, judiciary, and military.

The changes have stirred one of the most politically sensitive constitutional debates in years.

Several former senior judges and prominent lawyers earlier wrote to Chief Justice Yahya Afridi warning that the proposed amendment would “permanently denude” the Supreme Court of its constitutional authority, according to a letter seen by Arab News on Monday.

“With deep sadness and with the deepest regret, this letter is being written by us not in normal times but in times that present the greatest threat to the Supreme Court of Pakistan since its establishment in 1956,” the signatories wrote in a letter to the chief justice, adding that the proposed amendment would be “the biggest and the most radical restructuring of the Federal Appellate Court structure since the enactment of the Government of India Act, 1935.”

“We say this without any fear of contradiction that no civilian or military government in Pakistan’s history has even tried, let alone succeeded, in relegating the Supreme Court of Pakistan as a sub-ordinate court and permanently denude it of its constitutional jurisdiction, as is being done through the proposed Constitution (Twenty-Seventh Amendment) Act, 2025.”

The 27th amendment follows last year’s 26th amendment, passed in October 2024, which granted parliament a formal role in appointing the Chief Justice and established a senior judges’ panel for constitutional cases — moves widely criticized as weakening judicial independence.