Assignment 3: Forms and Formation of Government
Pakistan has a federal parliamentary system. The Pakistani parliament is
made up of two houses, the National Assembly and the Senate and its leader is
the Prime Minister, the Head of State is the President (Pakistan, 2012).
Although the Pakistani formation of government has all the features of a
parliamentary democracy, we must remember that it is a mixed regime, it has
elements of democracy and autocracy.
Pakistan's constitution outlines the terms of legislative responsibility, the
ability of the legislative majority to remove the current government. According
to Clark et al. (2017) the process is typically delivered by calling a vote of no-
confidence, if the government lose this vote, it must resign. This process is
written in the Constitution of Pakistan, stating the bringing to motion must be
agreed by 20% of the total membership of the National Assembly; if the motion
has majority in favour, then the Prime Minster will lose their position (Chapter
3, section 95, Pakistan, 2012). This process defines parliamentary systems,
although can also be present is mixed systems where the head of state is
popularly elected (Clark et al. 2017).
In April 2022, Prime Minister Ihram Khan was removed from office via a
vote of no-confidence, the first time a prime minister has been removed in this
way in the country's history (Curtis, 2023). It could be argued this show
Pakistan’s democratisation, as previously the military may have organised an
outright coup, instead of following due process (Kapur, 2018). Other methods of
holding the government to account include the judicial review; in April 2022 the
opposition appealed to the Supreme Court that Ihram Khan’s dissolution of
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