It is important to remember that there is long established military interference
in elections and government formation in Pakistan, but based on the results
above, I would categorise Pakistan as a multi-party system because the number
of ENEP is above 5. The national assembly has 60 reserved seats for women
and 10 reserved for non-muslims, voted in on a proportional representation
system; the remaining seats are voted in on a first-past-the-post system
(Pakistan, 2012). The difference between ENEP and ENPP indicates a
mechanical effect that reduces the number of effective parties. This can be
attributed to these reserved seats in the assembly. According to Duverger’s Law
(1963) single-member district plurality electoral system, encourages a two-party
system, whilst Duverger’s hypothesis states PR systems result in multi-party
systems. Prior to the election of Ihram Khan’s PTI party, traditionally electoral
success came to the PPP or the PML-N (Shah, 2019).
The party system orientates around religious and ethnic cleavages (BTI,
2022). Majority of the population is Muslim, so the parties benefit from strong
Islamic alignment, resulting in many of the political parties identifying as
Islamic parties. Other social cleavages that inform parties reflect specific ethnic
or linguistic groups, and regional and cultural identities. The ANP is a secular,
Pashtun nationalist political party. The Muttahida Qaumi Movement MQM
advocates the rights of Muhajirs, Urdu speaking Muslims, based in Karachi
(Home Office, 2023). The PTI is a right-wing party, founded in 1996 by Imram
Khan whose popularity is concentrated in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) is a faction of the PML led by the
Sharif family, and positions itself as centre-right (Shah, 2018). The PML split
during the military regime of Musharraf, PML-Q is the less popular faction that
supported the military regime. The PPP is a centre-left party that enjoys
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