Kazim Hayat
Pakistan, a hybrid regime, currently grapples with a complex web of interconnected challenges, primarily centered on acute economic instability marked by a massive debt burden.
Official data from June 2025 shows the total public debt at approximately Rs. 80.6 trillion (over $286 billion). This economic illness is accompanied by continuous political polarization and fragility in governance, where struggles for power hinder long-term policy implementation. International monitoring organizations emphasize that corruption in the public sector adds fuel to the fire.
For instance, the Transparency International 2024 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), published in February 2025, ranked Pakistan 135th out of 180 countries. Among these challenges, the burning issue is the internal security threat, primarily from the resurgence of the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).
Instead of urgently addressing these existential governance, social, and security catastrophes, the ruling coalition has prioritized controversial institutional restructuring via the 27th Constitutional Amendment, an act that demonstrates a clear failure of civilian leadership. This amendment, which critics widely view as a move to entrench the military’s constitutional supremacy, grants unprecedented powers to the army chief (as the newly created Chief of Defence Forces) and offers five-star officers legal immunity and lifetime privileges, simultaneously curbing the constitutional oversight powers of the Supreme Court by establishing a Federal Constitutional Court, an easy tool to manipulate.
The speed and focus with which the government passed this legislation, which largely secures the military’s power and immunity rather than the nation’s welfare, is seen by the nation with grief and disappointment, suggesting that its primary function is to serve the military institution rather than the people of Pakistan.
This development best illustrates Lord Acton’s statement: “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” By constitutionally entrenching absolute authority within a single, unelected institution, the ruling coalition has not only shirked its responsibility but has institutionalized the very conditions for limitless unaccountability. The failure of the elected government has led to a profound transition from a flawed democracy into a definitive Hybrid Regime where military authority is now constitutionally preserved.
Alas! Democracy! Welcome to Purana Pakistan!