After 27th Amendment, Pakistan needs real fixes, not power plays

An opinion piece argues that Pakistan’s 27th constitutional amendment looks less like a welfare-oriented reform and more like an exercise in consolidating power and patronage, including expanding minister-rank advisory posts. While the government touts averting a debt default, the writer says that achievement is overshadowed by deepening hardship, with over 40% of people below the poverty line and inequality hardening.

Drawing on the maxim attributed to Hazrat Ali—that societies survive disbelief but not injustice—the column warns that internal divides can undo states from within. It calls for two urgent priorities beyond the amendment: reviving agriculture and confronting climate stress, especially in Punjab, where policy reversals and a botched wheat-support regime crushed farm incomes and fuelled rural poverty amid floods and heavy rains.

The second priority is a reset of industrial and economic policy to lift a lethargic economy. That, the writer argues, requires reducing political discord after the 2024 elections, when Imran Khan’s jailed status and PTI’s opposition role sharpened divisions, and redirecting focus to jobs, incomes and food security.

Grandiose development schemes may be tempting, the piece cautions, but Pakistan’s immediate needs are livelihoods and resilience. Without follow-through on these fronts, the 27th Amendment risks being remembered as a power play rather than a pivot toward public welfare.