diff --git a/cmd/crio/config.go b/cmd/crio/config.go
index 2564baf1..907e9918 100644
--- a/cmd/crio/config.go
+++ b/cmd/crio/config.go
@@ -114,9 +114,6 @@ default_mounts = [
 # pids_limit is the number of processes allowed in a container
 pids_limit = {{ .PidsLimit }}
 
-# enable using a shared PID namespace for containers in a pod
-enable_shared_pid_namespace = {{ .EnableSharedPIDNamespace }}
-
 # log_size_max is the max limit for the container log size in bytes.
 # Negative values indicate that no limit is imposed.
 log_size_max = {{ .LogSizeMax }}
diff --git a/cmd/crio/main.go b/cmd/crio/main.go
index 2425a57c..f27ab374 100644
--- a/cmd/crio/main.go
+++ b/cmd/crio/main.go
@@ -131,9 +131,6 @@ func mergeConfig(config *server.Config, ctx *cli.Context) error {
 	if ctx.GlobalIsSet("pids-limit") {
 		config.PidsLimit = ctx.GlobalInt64("pids-limit")
 	}
-	if ctx.GlobalIsSet("enable-shared-pid-namespace") {
-		config.EnableSharedPIDNamespace = ctx.GlobalBool("enable-shared-pid-namespace")
-	}
 	if ctx.GlobalIsSet("log-size-max") {
 		config.LogSizeMax = ctx.GlobalInt64("log-size-max")
 	}
@@ -299,10 +296,6 @@ func main() {
 			Value: lib.DefaultPidsLimit,
 			Usage: "maximum number of processes allowed in a container",
 		},
-		cli.BoolFlag{
-			Name:  "enable-shared-pid-namespace",
-			Usage: "enable using a shared PID namespace for containers in a pod",
-		},
 		cli.Int64Flag{
 			Name:  "log-size-max",
 			Value: lib.DefaultLogSizeMax,
diff --git a/docs/crio.8.md b/docs/crio.8.md
index 8408978b..be2b159d 100644
--- a/docs/crio.8.md
+++ b/docs/crio.8.md
@@ -94,8 +94,6 @@ crio [GLOBAL OPTIONS] config [OPTIONS]
 
 **--pids-limit**="": Maximum number of processes allowed in a container (default: 1024)
 
-**--enable-shared-pid-namespace**="": Enable using a shared PID namespace for containers in a pod (default: false)
-
 **--root**="": The crio root dir (default: "/var/lib/containers/storage")
 
 **--registry**="": Registry host which will be prepended to unqualified images, can be specified multiple times
diff --git a/docs/crio.conf.5.md b/docs/crio.conf.5.md
index 708f26e7..c2f3f358 100644
--- a/docs/crio.conf.5.md
+++ b/docs/crio.conf.5.md
@@ -87,9 +87,6 @@ Example:
 **pids_limit**=""
   Maximum number of processes allowed in a container (default: 1024)
 
-**enable_shared_pid_namespace**=""
-  Enable using a shared PID namespace for containers in a pod (default: false)
-
 **runtime**=""
   OCI runtime path (default: "/usr/bin/runc")
 
diff --git a/lib/config.go b/lib/config.go
index 6a63b2b0..d46ff095 100644
--- a/lib/config.go
+++ b/lib/config.go
@@ -121,9 +121,6 @@ type RuntimeConfig struct {
 	// NoPivot instructs the runtime to not use `pivot_root`, but instead use `MS_MOVE`
 	NoPivot bool `toml:"no_pivot"`
 
-	// EnableSharePidNamespace instructs the runtime to enable share pid namespace
-	EnableSharedPIDNamespace bool `toml:"enable_shared_pid_namespace"`
-
 	// Conmon is the path to conmon binary, used for managing the runtime.
 	Conmon string `toml:"conmon"`
 
diff --git a/server/container_create.go b/server/container_create.go
index e815a14f..3129cac8 100644
--- a/server/container_create.go
+++ b/server/container_create.go
@@ -1000,7 +1000,7 @@ func (s *Server) createSandboxContainer(ctx context.Context, containerID string,
 	if containerConfig.GetLinux().GetSecurityContext().GetNamespaceOptions().GetPid() == pb.NamespaceMode_NODE {
 		// kubernetes PodSpec specify to use Host PID namespace
 		specgen.RemoveLinuxNamespace(string(rspec.PIDNamespace))
-	} else if s.config.EnableSharedPIDNamespace {
+	} else if containerConfig.GetLinux().GetSecurityContext().GetNamespaceOptions().GetPid() == pb.NamespaceMode_POD {
 		// share Pod PID namespace
 		pidNsPath := fmt.Sprintf("/proc/%d/ns/pid", podInfraState.Pid)
 		if err := specgen.AddOrReplaceLinuxNamespace(string(rspec.PIDNamespace), pidNsPath); err != nil {
diff --git a/test/helpers.bash b/test/helpers.bash
index db890c35..6a84b60e 100644
--- a/test/helpers.bash
+++ b/test/helpers.bash
@@ -56,8 +56,6 @@ IMAGE_VOLUMES=${IMAGE_VOLUMES:-mkdir}
 PIDS_LIMIT=${PIDS_LIMIT:-1024}
 # Log size max limit
 LOG_SIZE_MAX_LIMIT=${LOG_SIZE_MAX_LIMIT:--1}
-# enable share container pid namespace
-ENABLE_SHARED_PID_NAMESPACE=${ENABLE_SHARED_PID_NAMESPACE:-false}
 
 TESTDIR=$(mktemp -d)
 
@@ -217,7 +215,7 @@ function start_crio() {
 	"$COPYIMG_BINARY" --root "$TESTDIR/crio" $STORAGE_OPTIONS --runroot "$TESTDIR/crio-run" --image-name=docker.io/mrunalp/image-volume-test:latest --import-from=dir:"$ARTIFACTS_PATH"/image-volume-test-image --signature-policy="$INTEGRATION_ROOT"/policy.json
 	"$COPYIMG_BINARY" --root "$TESTDIR/crio" $STORAGE_OPTIONS --runroot "$TESTDIR/crio-run" --image-name=docker.io/library/busybox:latest --import-from=dir:"$ARTIFACTS_PATH"/busybox-image --signature-policy="$INTEGRATION_ROOT"/policy.json
 	"$COPYIMG_BINARY" --root "$TESTDIR/crio" $STORAGE_OPTIONS --runroot "$TESTDIR/crio-run" --image-name=docker.io/runcom/stderr-test:latest --import-from=dir:"$ARTIFACTS_PATH"/stderr-test --signature-policy="$INTEGRATION_ROOT"/policy.json
-	"$CRIO_BINARY" ${DEFAULT_MOUNTS_OPTS} ${HOOKS_OPTS} --conmon "$CONMON_BINARY" --listen "$CRIO_SOCKET" --cgroup-manager "$CGROUP_MANAGER" --registry "docker.io" --runtime "$RUNTIME_BINARY" --root "$TESTDIR/crio" --runroot "$TESTDIR/crio-run" $STORAGE_OPTIONS --seccomp-profile "$seccomp" --apparmor-profile "$apparmor" --cni-config-dir "$CRIO_CNI_CONFIG" --cni-plugin-dir "$CRIO_CNI_PLUGIN" --signature-policy "$INTEGRATION_ROOT"/policy.json --image-volumes "$IMAGE_VOLUMES" --pids-limit "$PIDS_LIMIT" --enable-shared-pid-namespace=${ENABLE_SHARED_PID_NAMESPACE} --log-size-max "$LOG_SIZE_MAX_LIMIT" --config /dev/null config >$CRIO_CONFIG
+	"$CRIO_BINARY" ${DEFAULT_MOUNTS_OPTS} ${HOOKS_OPTS} --conmon "$CONMON_BINARY" --listen "$CRIO_SOCKET" --cgroup-manager "$CGROUP_MANAGER" --registry "docker.io" --runtime "$RUNTIME_BINARY" --root "$TESTDIR/crio" --runroot "$TESTDIR/crio-run" $STORAGE_OPTIONS --seccomp-profile "$seccomp" --apparmor-profile "$apparmor" --cni-config-dir "$CRIO_CNI_CONFIG" --cni-plugin-dir "$CRIO_CNI_PLUGIN" --signature-policy "$INTEGRATION_ROOT"/policy.json --image-volumes "$IMAGE_VOLUMES" --pids-limit "$PIDS_LIMIT" --log-size-max "$LOG_SIZE_MAX_LIMIT" --config /dev/null config >$CRIO_CONFIG
 
 	# Prepare the CNI configuration files, we're running with non host networking by default
 	if [[ -n "$4" ]]; then
diff --git a/test/namespaces.bats b/test/namespaces.bats
index 79c923f4..f8cc0fad 100644
--- a/test/namespaces.bats
+++ b/test/namespaces.bats
@@ -6,14 +6,15 @@ function teardown() {
 	cleanup_test
 }
 
-function pid_namespace_test() {
+@test "pid_namespace_mode_pod_test" {
 	start_crio
-
-	run crictl runp "$TESTDATA"/sandbox_config.json
+	pidNamespaceMode=$(cat "$TESTDATA"/sandbox_config.json | python -c 'import json,sys;obj=json.load(sys.stdin);obj["linux"]["security_context"]["namespace_options"]["pid"] = 0; json.dump(obj, sys.stdout)')
+	echo "$pidNamespaceMode" > "$TESTDIR"/sandbox_pidnamespacemode_config.json
+	run crictl runp "$TESTDIR"/sandbox_pidnamespacemode_config.json
 	echo "$output"
 	[ "$status" -eq 0 ]
 	pod_id="$output"
-	run crictl create "$pod_id" "$TESTDATA"/container_redis.json "$TESTDATA"/sandbox_config.json
+	run crictl create "$pod_id" "$TESTDATA"/container_redis.json "$TESTDIR"/sandbox_pidnamespacemode_config.json
 	echo "$output"
 	[ "$status" -eq 0 ]
 	ctr_id="$output"
@@ -23,7 +24,7 @@ function pid_namespace_test() {
 	run crictl exec --sync "$ctr_id" cat /proc/1/cmdline
 	echo "$output"
 	[ "$status" -eq 0 ]
-	[[ "$output" =~ "${EXPECTED_INIT:-redis}" ]]
+	[[ "$output" =~ pause ]]
 
 	run crictl stopp "$pod_id"
 	echo "$output"
@@ -35,11 +36,3 @@ function pid_namespace_test() {
 	cleanup_pods
 	stop_crio
 }
-
-@test "pod disable shared pid namespace" {
-	ENABLE_SHARED_PID_NAMESPACE=false pid_namespace_test
-}
-
-@test "pod enable shared pid namespace" {
-	ENABLE_SHARED_PID_NAMESPACE=true EXPECTED_INIT=pause pid_namespace_test
-}