The Politics of Pakistan takes place within the framework established by the constitution. The country is a federal parliamentary republic in which provincial governments enjoy a high degree of autonomy and residuary powers. Executive power is vested with the national cabinet which is headed by Prime Minister of Pakistan, who works with the bicameral parliament and the judiciary. Stipulations set by the constitution provide a delicate check and balance of sharing powers between executive, legislative, and judicial branches of the government.
Muhammad Ayub Khan was a Pakistani military officer and politician who served as the second president of Pakistan from 1958 to 1969. He previously served as the third Commander-in-Chief of the Pakistan Army from 1951 to 1958.
The administrative units of Pakistan comprise four provinces, one federal territory, and two disputed territories: the provinces of Punjab, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and Balochistan; the Islamabad Capital Territory; and the administrative territories of Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Gilgit–Baltistan. As part of the Kashmir conflict with neighbouring India, Pakistan has also claimed sovereignty over the Indian-controlled territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh since the First Kashmir War of 1947–1948, but has never exercised administrative authority over either region. All of Pakistan's provinces and territories are subdivided into divisions, which are further subdivided into districts, and then tehsils, which are again further subdivided into union councils.
The Parliament of Pakistan is the supreme legislative body of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. It is a bicameral federal legislature, composed of the President of Pakistan and two houses: the Senate and the National Assembly. The president, as head of the legislature, has the power to summon or prorogue either house of the Parliament. The president can dissolve the National Assembly, only on the Prime Minister's advice.
Since its establishment in 1947, Pakistan has had a non-symmetric federal government and is a federal parliamentary democratic republic. At the national level, the people of Pakistan elect a bicameral legislature, the Parliament of Pakistan. The parliament consists of a lower house called the National Assembly, which is elected directly, and an upper house called the Senate, whose members are chosen by elected provincial legislators. The head of government, the Prime Minister, is elected by the majority members of the National Assembly and the head of state, the President, is elected by the Electoral College, which consists of both houses of Parliament together with the four provincial assemblies. In addition to the national parliament and the provincial assemblies, Pakistan also has more than five thousand elected local governments.
Chakwal District is in Pothohar Plateau of Punjab, Pakistan. It is located in the north of the Punjab province, Chakwal district is bordered by Talagang to its south, Rawalpindi to its north east, Jhelum to its east, Talagang The district was created out of parts of Jhelum and Attock in 1985.
The Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, is the provincial government of the Pakistani province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Its powers and structure are set out in the provisions of the 1973 Constitution, in which 32 districts come under its authority and jurisdiction. The government includes the cabinet, selected from members the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly, and the non-political civil staff within each department. The province is governed by a unicameral legislature with the head of government known as the Chief Minister. The Chief Minister, invariably the leader of a political party represented in the Assembly, selects members of the Cabinet. The Chief Minister and Cabinet are thus responsible the functioning of government and are entitled to remain in office so long as it maintains the confidence of the elected Assembly. The head of the province is known as the Governor, appointed by the federal government, on behalf of the President, while the administrative boss of the province is Chief Secretary Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
The union councils of Pakistan, referred to as village councils in villages, are an elected local government body consisting of 21 councillors, and headed by a Nazim which is equivalent to a mayor or chairperson and a Naib Nazim. As of 2007, there are 5,375 rural union councils across 115 districts. They form the third-tier of local government and fifth tier overall. Its structure and responsibilities differ between provinces and territories.
The National Reconstruction Bureau of Pakistan was an independent and constitutionally established federal institution tasked with economic recovery and prosperous development through the local government system. It was dissolved in May 2011.
The East Pakistan Provincial Assembly, known as the East Bengal Legislative Assembly between 1947 and 1955, was the provincial legislature of East Pakistan between 1947 and 1971. It was known as the East Bengal Assembly from 1947 to 1955 when the provincial name was changed. The legislature was a successor to the Bengal Legislative Council and the Bengal Legislative Assembly, which were divided between East Bengal and West Bengal during the partition of Bengal in 1947. It was the largest provincial legislature in Pakistan. Elections were held only twice in 1954 and 1970.
Pakistan's first presidential elections were held on 2 January 1965. The voting was to be indirect, as the President had to be elected by the 80,000 "basic democrats", who made up the Electoral College. These basic Democrats were democratically elected public representatives who served in the Divisional, District, Tehsil or Union councils.
Pakistan is a federal republic with three tiers of government: national, provincial and local. Local government is protected by the constitution in Articles 32 and 140-A, and each province also has its own local-government-enabling legislation and ministries responsible for implementation. District councils and metropolitan corporations are respectively the highest rural and urban tiers of local government in the provinces. Both urban and rural local government have two or three tiers in all provinces except Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where councils are not identified as either urban or rural. There are 129 district councils across the four provinces, 619 urban councils made up of one city district, four metropolitan corporations, 13 municipal corporations, 96 municipal committees, 148 town councils, 360 urban union committees, and 1,925 rural councils. Additionally there are 3339 neighbourhood, ‘tehsil’ and village councils in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Rehana is a village and one of the 44 union councils, administrative subdivisions, of Haripur District in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan.
A tehsil is a local unit of administrative division in India and Pakistan. It is a subdistrict of the area within a district including the designated populated place that serves as its administrative centre, with possible additional towns, and usually a number of villages. The terms in India have replaced earlier terms, such as pargana (pergunnah) and thana.
Local government in India is governmental jurisdiction below the level of the state. Local self-government means that residents in towns, villages and rural settlements are the people who elect local councils and their heads authorising them to solve the important issues. India is a federal republic with three spheres of government: central, state and local. The 73rd and 74th constitutional amendments give recognition and protection to local governments and in addition each state has its own local government legislation. Since 1992, local government in India takes place in two very distinct forms. Urban localities, covered in the 74th amendment to the Constitution, have Nagar Palika but derive their powers from the individual state governments, while the powers of rural localities have been formalized under the panchayati raj system, under the 73rd amendment to the Constitution.
The Constitution of 1962 was the fundamental law of Islamic Republic of Pakistan from 8 June 1962 until martial law was declared in 25th March 1969. It was abrogated on 25th March 1969 by President Yahya Khan.
The 1958 Pakistani military coup was the first military coup in Pakistan that took place on 27 October 1958. It resulted in the toppling of Iskandar Ali Mirza, the president of Pakistan, by Muhammad Ayub Khan, the commander-in-chief of the Pakistan Army.
The Government of Karachi is the administrative body for the city of Karachi, Pakistan. Presently the Karachi Local Government system consists mainly of the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation, headed by the Mayor or Administrator.
The Government of Gilgit-Baltistan is the government of the administrative territory of Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan. Its powers and structure are set out in the 2009 Gilgit-Baltistan Empowerment and Self-Governance Order, in which 14 districts come under its authority and jurisdiction. The government includes the cabinet, selected from members the Gilgit–Baltistan Assembly, and the non-political civil staff within each department. The province is governed by a unicameral legislature with the head of government known as the Chief Minister. The Chief Minister, invariably the leader of a political party represented in the Assembly, selects members of the Cabinet. The Chief Minister and Cabinet are thus responsible the functioning of government and are entitled to remain in office so long as it maintains the confidence of the elected Assembly. The head of state of the province is known as the Governor. The terms Government of Gilgit–Baltistan or Gilgit–Baltistan Government are often used in official documents. The seat of government is in Gilgit, thus serving as the capital of the territory.
Electoral fraud in Pakistan has a history intertwined with military interventions and legal obstacles against political dissenters, impacting the democratic process. Since its inception in 1947, Pakistan experienced alternating phases of democracy and authoritarianism, with the first general elections held only in 1970. The early governance was managed by a Constituent Assembly of Pakistan, tasked with both administrative functions and drafting a constitution.
Media related to Muhammed Ayub Khan at Wikimedia Commons
