ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar tabled the 27th constitutional amendment reshaping military, judiciary command in the National Assembly on Tuesday after it was passed by the Senate a day earlier.
The “Constitution (Twenty-seventh Amendment) Bill, 2025” was passed by a two-thirds majority in the Senate on Monday after 64 legislators voted in favor of it. The amendment, which was tabled by Tarar last week in the Senate, 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 position of the 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 top court. Critics have said the move would weaken the judiciary while the government has said Constitutional Courts would reduce the burden on the judiciary and ensure speedy dispensation of justice. The amendment also features new procedures for the transfer of judges. As per the amendment, the president can transfer a high court judge from one court to another on the recommendations of the Judicial Commission of Pakistan. It also alters the framework that governs how federal revenue is shared with provinces.
As per Pakistani law, after a bill is passed by the Senate, it needs the National Assembly’s approval before the president gives formal assent for it to become law.
“I move that the bill further to amend the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan [The Constitution Twenty-seventh Amendment) Bill, 2025] as passed by the Senate, be taken into consideration at once,” Tarar said while tabling the bill.
The law minister read out the salient features of the amendments, urging both government and lawmakers to debate its provisions before voting takes place. He thanked the government’s coalition parties for supporting the bill in the Senate.
“I would like to request my friends in the opposition that the way you have listened to the features of this [bill] with patience, this same patience should be seen on both sides of the isle,” the minister said.
“We should listen to each other, we should correct each other. We should sit together again to discuss what is reasonable and take this process forward.”
Opposition legislator Gohar Ali Khan, who is a member of former prime minister Imran Khan’s opposition Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, said democracy would “only remain in name” if the 27th constitutional amendment was passed by the National Assembly today.
The PTI legislator criticized the government, accusing it of introducing the amendments for their personal gain. He criticized the proposed amendment empowering the government to select the judges of the constitutional court.
“The prime minister will appoint its first chief justice and the prime minister will appoint its judges,” Gohar said. “You are picking and choosing. This process is outright wrong.”
‘HISTORIC STEP’
Monday’s Senate session was marred by a noisy protest from opposition lawmakers, who shouted slogans before staging a walkout while Tarar presented the bill.
Speaking to Arab News on Monday, 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.
The government hailed the amendment as a “historic step” after it was passed in the Senate on Monday, with Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar saying the constitutional court is being established for the “improvement of the judiciary.”
“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.
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.
