Charter of Convenience

It took Pakistan 9 years after its independence to formulate and promulgate a constitution in 1956. Even that constitution couldn't hold long and was abrogated by the martial-law regime of General Ayub Khan in October 1958. The Constitution of 1962, which was undemocratic and framed by the regime of President General Ayub Khan, was abrogated in March 1969 when General Yahya Khan imposed martial law. The August 1973 Constitution was promulgated by consensus, but several amendments made during the Bhutto, Zia, and Musharraf regimes diminished its democratic credentials. Zia's martial law and Musharraf's military takeover suspended the 1973 Constitution until 1985 and 2002, respectively, when the then parliament approved amendments made by the two military regimes. The 26th and 27th Constitutional Amendments, enacted in 2024 and 2025, eroded the judiciary and enhanced the power of the Chief of Army Staff by elevating him to the rank of Field Marshal and appointing him as Chief of Defence Forces (CDF).

Pakistan failed to emerge as a democratic state with political pluralism and the rule of law because of constitutional engineering in which a segment of the judiciary was also complacent. Unlike Pakistan, which for the first 9 years of its existence failed to promulgate a constitution, India succeeded in launching its constitution in 1950, and that legal document guaranteed its democracy and secularism. If a country lacks a viable constitution and those at the helm use that legal document to advance their interests while not keeping the people's interests supreme, that country can neither be politically nor economically stable, nor ensure good governance and the rule of law. The military, bureaucratic, judicial, and political elite of Pakistan has excelled in constitutional engineering.

According to Pakistan's renowned political scientist Professor Hasan Askari Rizvi, who wrote in his pioneering book Pakistan: Political and Constitutional Engineering published in 2024, "Pakistan's politics is not conducive to consensus-building on the ways and means to promote internal political coherence, socio-economic development and human security. It is characterised by poverty of ideas and vision, weak and divided political forces, multiple constitutional frameworks, periodic breakdown of constitutional machinery, prolonged absence of a permanent constitution, expanded rule of the military-bureaucratic elite, and direct and civilianised military rule. The political class in Pakistan subscribes to democracy and liberal constitutionalism, but authoritarian trends are strong in governance and political management."

In 2010, the 18th Amendment tried to undo non-democratic amendments in the 1973 Constitution made during the Zia and Musharraf eras, but in 2024 and 2025, the 26th and 27th Amendments were passed with a two-thirds majority by Pakistan's Parliament, having the support of PML-N, PPP and MQM, leading to the erosion of an independent judiciary.

Now, after the 26th and 27th Amendments were enacted, there is talk of introducing the 28th Amendment, which would further weaken civilian authority.

According to the Amnesty International (AI) report of January 5, 2026 entitled, "Pakistan: Twenty-Seventh Constitutional Amendment Attacks Independence of Judiciary", "the Twenty-seventh Amendment to the Constitution poses a grave threat to the independence of the judiciary and the rule of law in Pakistan by creating a Federal Constitutional Court that lacks independence, erodes judges' security of tenure and insulates the president and heads of the naval, army and air forces from accountability. Amnesty International calls for an urgent review of the Twenty-Seventh Constitutional Amendment to ensure that all its provisions fully comply with Pakistan's obligations and commitments under international human rights law. The authorities must immediately take all appropriate measures to safeguard the impartiality, independence and safety of judges, ensuring that they can carry out their judicial functions without any inappropriate or unwarranted interference and any restrictions, improper influences, pressures and threats, direct or indirect, from any quarter or for any reason."

The proposed 28th Amendment has been paused due to the National Assembly's budget session and the reported refusal of the PPP to support it

According to AI's report, "despite its far-reaching consequences, the amendment was steamrolled through parliament with no consultation with civil society and opposition parties. On the day the Act became law, two senior judges of the Supreme Court resigned in protest. Two days later, a judge of the Lahore High Court also resigned."

Amnesty International, in its report, also referred to the 26th Amendment and strongly criticized the slashing of the powers of the Chief Justices of the High Courts and the Supreme Court. The report lamented the passage of the 26th Amendment by Pakistan's Parliament, stating: "The Twenty-Sixth Amendment was passed with similar haste, in less than 24 hours, in October 2024. The amendment changed the composition of the Judicial Commission of Pakistan (JCP), the body responsible for appointing judges of the Supreme and High Courts, by adding members of parliament, which, as the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) notes, reduced the commission's judicial members to a minority. In its 2024 Concluding Observations, the UN Human Rights Committee noted that the amendment had an impact on the independence of the judiciary and on the process of judicial appointments. The change in composition to include the legislature of the JCP risks politicisation of the process."

The 26th Amendment also empowered the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC), the body responsible for inquiring into cases against judges, to remove judges on grounds of "inefficient in the performance of the duties". This was in addition to the existing powers under Article 209 to remove judges due to "physical and mental incapacity" and for "misconduct". The Twenty-Sixth Amendment further created a Constitutional Bench of the Supreme Court, comprising judges of the Supreme Court as nominated by the new JCP, and gave it powers previously exercised by the Supreme Court to hear cases involving "the constitutionality of any law or a substantial question of law as to the interpretation of the Constitution".

The amendment transferred the Supreme Court's original jurisdiction - the authority to hear cases at its own initiation - and advisory jurisdiction - authority to provide opinion on significant questions of law or public importance referred by the President - to the newly created Constitutional Benches. These benches were constituted at both the Supreme Court and the High Courts and had exclusive jurisdiction over cases concerning the interpretation of the Constitution. A little over a year after the Constitutional Benches were constituted, the 27th Amendment abolished the bench at the Supreme Court level and replaced it with a separate court - the Federal Constitutional Court.

The proposed 28th Amendment has been paused due to the National Assembly's budget session and the reported refusal of the PPP to support it. That amendment supposedly suggested revisiting provincial autonomy by creating new administrative units, slashing federal grants to provinces by altering the National Finance Commission (NFC) award, and increasing the voting age from 18 to 25. The suggestion about voters' age is aimed at reducing the PTI's electoral base, which has enormous support from the youth bulge.

One needs to examine constitutional engineering in Pakistan from two aspects. First, with the connivance of the civil-military bureaucracy and a segment of the judicial and political elite, constitutional engineering is done to prevent democracy and political pluralism from taking root. All the way from the 1950s to today, constitutions have been abrogated, suspended, or amended to prevent the strengthening of democracy, political pluralism, and freedom of the media. The doctrine of necessity, proclaimed by the Supreme Court's Chief Justice, is a vivid example of constitutional engineering. Second, the fragility of civil society and the compromises made by owners of print and electronic media in accepting state-imposed restrictions on freedom of speech are examples of political engineering aimed at taming opposition and enhancing the power of the establishment.

There is no solution in constitutional engineering except the democratic transformation of political parties, the media, and civil society

There is no solution in constitutional engineering except the democratic transformation of political parties, the media, and civil society, provided there is a shrinking space for a dictatorial culture. The role of youth also matters, and their assertion of democracy, good governance, and the rule of law can force mafias to take a backseat.