Analysts warn Pakistan's 27th constitutional amendment erodes judicial independence, deepens rights crisis

Berlin [Germany] January 29 (ANI): A group of analysts and human rights advocates in Berlin cautioned that Pakistan's recently enacted 27th Constitutional Amendment will erode judicial independence and concentrate greater power in the executive, further diminishing safeguards for citizens who are already experiencing political marginalisation and rights violations, according to a report by The Balochistan Post (TBP).
The panel discussion, moderated by former BBC journalist Sahar Baloch, included political analyst Rafiullah Kakar and Abdullah Abbas, Executive Director of the Human Rights Council of Balochistan (HRCB). Kakar said the amendment "essentially alters" the balance between the judiciary and the executive by curtailing the courts' power to review or contest executive decisions. He said the move would limit the capacity of citizens, activists and civil society groups to pursue legal recourse.
"Rights are not officially eliminated," he said, "but their enforceability disintegrates when courts are deprived of authority," as quoted in the TBP report.
He further said the amendment weakens what he described as the role of the 1973 Constitution as an inclusive political framework that recognised Pakistan's ethnic and religious minorities as stakeholders.
Abbas said the consequences in Balochistan, a region where rights organisations have long reported enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings, would be especially harsh. "This law applies nationwide, but Balochistan is a distinct case," he said.
He said legal institutions in Balochistan have already failed to offer meaningful protection. "Decades of dehumanisation and state-driven narrative-building against dissent have enabled and often justified the most serious human rights abuses," he said. According to HRCB figures cited during the discussion, 1,455 people were subjected to enforced disappearance in Balochistan in 2025, while 538 were killed. The organisation documented 92 people allegedly killed in custody and 55 killed in what it termed "staged encounters," TBP reported.
"In Balochistan, the Constitution scarcely exists in practice," Abbas said. "With the 27th Amendment, even the limited remaining hope for legal redress is being wiped out." He said the change strengthens a system in which victims lack any meaningful path to justice.
Abbas also said recent changes to Pakistan's Anti-Terrorism Act effectively legitimise enforced disappearances. "What China did to the Uyghurs through lawfare and surveillance is now being reproduced in Balochistan," he said, describing the development as "the institutionalisation of repression." The panel concluded that without robust civic mobilisation, legal action and international oversight, the amendment threatens to dismantle further what remains of Pakistan's democratic checks and balances, the TBP report highlighted. (ANI)