HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.
![handle is hein.crs/goveqsv0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Pakistan's Domestic Political Seti
Overview
Historically, constitutionalism and parliamentary
democracy have fared poorly in the Islamic Republic of
Pakistan, marked by power struggles among presidents,
prime ministers (PMs), and army chiefs. Congress has taken
an interest in efforts to strengthen civilian rule and improve
governance in the nuclear-armed state. In the 118th
Congress, H.Res. 901-Expressing support for democracy
and human rights in Pakistan-was passed by the full
House in June 2024. Islamabad contended that the
resolution stems from an incomplete understanding of the
political situation and electoral process in Pakistan.
The military has directly governed Pakistan for 33 of its 77
years of independence-most recently from 1999 to 2008-
interspersed with periods of generally weak civilian
governance. Pakistan has had five constitutions, the most
recent ratified in 1973 and significantly modified several
times since. The military has engaged in three outright
seizures of power from elected governments: by Army
Chiefs Gen. Ayub Khan in 1958, Gen. Zia ul-Haq in 1977,
and Gen. Pervez Musharraf in 1999. After 1970, five
successive governments were voted into power, but not
until 2013 was a government voted out of power-all
previous were removed directly by the army or through
presidential orders. Of Pakistan's three most prominent
PMs, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was executed; his daughter
Benazir Bhutto was exiled and later assassinated; and three-
time PM Nawaz Sharif was convicted on corruption charges
and lived in self-imposed exile from 2019 until his late
2023 return to the country.
Pakistan is a parliamentary democracy in which the PM is
head of government and the president is head of state. A
bicameral parliament is composed of a 336-seat National
Assembly (NA) and a 104-seat Senate. Both have directly
elected representatives from each of the country's four
provinces (Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa or KP,
Punjab, and Sindh), as well as from the Islamabad Capital
Territory. The quasi-independent regions of Azad Kashmir
and Gilgit-Baltistan have no representation. NA members
are elected from 266 districts; 60 seats for women and 10
seats for religious minorities are filled on a proportional
basis. The PM is elected by the NA. The president, with a
largely ceremonial role, is elected to a five-year term by an
Electoral College composed of both chambers of parliament
and members of the country's four provincial assemblies.
NA and provincial assembly members are elected to five-
year terms. Senate terms are six years, with elections every
three years. Senate powers are limited, and only the NA can
approve budget and finance bills.
Background: 2022 Poltial Upheaval
The 2018 elections brought a dramatic end to the decades-
long domination of Pakistan's national politics by two
dynastic parties as the relatively young Pakistan Tehreek-e-
Updated September 24, 2024
Insaf (PTI or Movement for Justice) party, led by former
cricket superstar Imran Khan, swept a plurality (46%) of
NA seats. The PTI also took charge of a coalition in the
Punjab provincial assembly (about 60% of Pakistanis live in
Punjab) while retaining the majority it won in KP in 2013.
Khan had no governance experience before 2018. His
Naya [New] Pakistan vision sought creation of a welfare
state, but the effort foundered due to the country's acute
(and ongoing) financial crises. Most analysts saw Pakistan's
military continuing to retain dominant influence over
foreign and security policies. During Khan's tenure,
Pakistan's economic woes grew more severe, requiring an
International Monetary Fund bailout package in 2019 to
ease the country's debt crisis.
A late 2021 power struggle between PM Khan and the then-
Army Chief over the appointment of a new intelligence
director may have contributed to the establishment (a
euphemism for the military and intelligence services)
withdrawing support for Khan-the same support that
likely boosted the PTI in 2018 successes. Opposition parties
narrowly passed a no-confidence motion against Khan, who
was removed from office in April 2022. The NA then
elected a new government under Pakistan Muslim League-
Nawaz (PML-N) leader Shehbaz Sharif, Nawaz's younger
brother, in alliance with the Pakistan People's Party (PPP)
and others among the Pakistan Democratic Movement
(PDM) coalition formed in 2020. Khan and his party,
animating many younger, urban, middle-class voters and
still commanding widespread popular support, denounced
his removal and demanded early elections.
The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) demurred and
then delayed provincial and national elections. Khan was
arrested on corruption charges in May 2023, a move likely
provoked by his unprecedented public criticisms of security
agencies and officials. His arrest sparked mass protests by
PTI activists, including attacks on army installations.
Thousands of demonstrators were arrested, and the military,
in apparent concert with the PML-N-led government-set
about dismantling the PTI through a pressure campaign and
arrests of party leadership.
In August 2023, Khan was convicted, sentenced to prison,
and banned from politics for five years. As per the
constitution, a caretaker government was seated the same
month to oversee the election process. Although required
by mid-November under the constitution, the election was
delayed, ostensibly to delimit new districts based on a
recently completed census. As the election date approached,
government-imposed restrictions on the PTI included media
and electoral symbol bans, and further criminal convictions
of Khan. Even before the election took place, the EIU
Democracy Index 2023 downgraded Pakistan from a
hybrid regime to an authoritarian regime, saying
Pakistan's regression in 2023 was the worst in the region.](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.crs/goveqsv0001&div=1&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)