4. Constitutional, Historical and Political Background In order to understand the more analytical sections of the thesis in 4.3 and chapter
5, it is necessary first to include an overview of the key constitutional, historical
and political events to which they refer.
Constitutional law and its practice in Pakistan have evolved over a period of
decades, during the course of which there has been a background of ongoing
political instability for many reasons. However, so as to retain the focus on the
research questions of this thesis, this section discusses only the extent to which
this evolution demonstrates, or fails to demonstrate, the key factors of equal
representation and separation of powers which are amongst those chosen for the
purposes of subsequent analysis over that period.
Pakistan is a federal parliamentary republic,
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which is comprised of four
provinces.
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At the central level, the powers are shared and co-ordinated between
the executive, the legislature and the judicature.
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The central legislature, known
as parliament, is comprised of two houses, i.e. the National Assembly (lower house)
and the Senate (upper house). Members of the national assembly (MNAs) are directly
elected, whereas the members of the Senate (Senators) are indirectly elected by the
four provincial assemblies. The Prime Minister is the leader of the party in the
majority in the lower house of parliament and is the sole head of executive
government. The President is indirectly elected by the parliament and is a
ceremonial figurehead who represents the unity of the state. Parliamentary seats
are allocated by way of proportional representation, there are a total of 342 seats in
the National Assembly, out of which 174 are allocated to the most populous
province Punjab.
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The majority required to form a government is 172 seats.
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Whether one party can win in Punjab is irrelevant, but technically, if a party wins
all the National Assembly seats allocated to Punjab, it can form a government. This
seat allocation clearly shows the supremacy of one province, which can in turn
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