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Government of Pakistan
The Constitution of Pakistan provides for a Federal Parliamentary System of
government, with a President as the Head of State and an indrectly-elected Prime
Minister as the chief executive.
The President of Pakistan is the Head of State and Commander in Chief of the
Armed Forces, and is elected for a five-year term by the Electoral College of
Pakistan - comprised of the Senate, the National Assembly, and the four
Provincial Assemblies. The President’s appointment and term are constitutionally
independent of the Prime Minister’s term.
The Prime Minister of Pakistan is usually the leader of the largest party in the
National Assembly and is assisted by a cabinet of ministers drawn from both
chambers of the federal legislature.
The bicameral federal legislature comprises the 100 member Senate (with seats
equally distributed among the provinces and the FATA and the capital) and the
342 member National Assembly. Both the Senate and the National Assembly have
seats reserved for women and religious minorities. Senators are elected for
six-year terms, with staggered elections every three years, whilst members of
the National Assembly are elected for five-year terms. The Constitution provides
for the President to address the federal legislature together at the start of
the first session after any general elections.
The last National Assembly elections were held in October 2002, and Senate
elections in February 2003. One notable outcome was the election of 91 women to
Parliament - the largest number and percentage of women in the parliament of any
Muslim-majority country.[1]
Each province has a similar government setup with a Provincial Assembly elected
for a five-year term through multi-party elections, which in turn elects a Chief
Minister - the executive head of the province. The Chief Minister nominates a
candidate for the office of Provincial Governor and the Provincial Assembly
ratifies the nominee for a five-year term.
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