The passage of Pakistan’s 27th Constitutional Amendment is not reform, it is the death knell of Pakistan’s democracy. Dressed up as institutional modernisation, it represents the most sweeping centralisation of power in Pakistan’s history. General Asim Munir has managed what his predecessors only attempted: to stage a coup without tanks, impose martial law without uniforms and sanctify dictatorship through scripture.

The Coup That Wore A Constitution

In one stroke, the amendment creates a new Federal Constitutional Court to adjudicate constitutional matters, wresting this authority from the Supreme Court. Its composition ensures loyalty to the executive, which in Pakistan’s grammar means the military. Judicial independence, already battered, has now been surgically excised.

Simultaneous

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