It's been an open secret for a long time that the judiciary in Pakistan is not really independent (that's the case in most countries of the world), but no one ever said so in public. The twenty seventh amendment has merely legalized something illegal, which is why it's not being resisted so fiercely by lawyers (who came out twenty years ago to protest massively against the removal of then Chief Justice Iftikhar Choudhry by the late General Parvez Musharraf). In fact, the only retired army general so far tried and convicted by a civilian court was Musharraf himself, which made him stay out of the country for a long time (he'd been sentenced to death, but the sentence was later overturned). Until that time, it was unthinkable for any judge to do such a thing. That's the reason why the 27th amendment grants lifetime immunity to the present and future army chiefs (as well as naval and air force chiefs).
As for granting immunity to the president of the country, that was already part of the constitution, but perhaps Zardari thought it was necessary to reinforce that clause.
There is of course the Imran Khan factor. His cases will no longer be heard by judges who like him, or judges whose mothers-in-law want him to be freed (this actually happened in the past).
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