nam 22 uu 4500 10.59704/ad81eeea1c5333cf DE-Verfassungsblog cr||||| 250618s2025||||xx#|||||o|||| ||| 0|eng|| 10.59704/ad81eeea1c5333cf doi eng 342 23 Khan, Muhammad Asif Author aut Legalising Authoritarianism through Pakistan’s Supreme Court - The May 7 Verdict Khan, Muhammad Asif Verfassungsblog 2025-06-18 Text txt rdacontent Computermedien c rdamedia Online-Ressource cr rdacarrier On 7 May 2025, Pakistan’s Supreme Court overturned its own previous judgment from October 2023 that had declared military trials of civilians unconstitutional. The newly constituted Constitutional Bench reinstated clauses of the Pakistan Army Act that allow for the prosecution of civilians in military courts. The ruling was justified on national security grounds, citing the need to prosecute attacks by civilians on military installations, a rationale that conflates dissent with terrorism and bypasses the safeguards of civilian legal processes. This decision not only reverses prior precedent but also marks a troubling endorsement of military jurisdiction over civilian matters, raising fundamental concerns about the erosion of judicial independence and the rule of law. CC BY-SA 4.0 Authoritarian Populism Authoritarianism Pakistan Pakistan Pakistani Supreme Court judicial independence (DE-588)4075812-6 gnd Pakistan Max Steinbeis Verfassungsblog gGmbH Verfassungsblog 2366-7044 https://verfassungsblog.de/legalising-authoritarianism-through-pakistans-supreme-court/ raw object