| President of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan صدر مملیكت |
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Flag of the President of Pakistan |
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Incumbent
Asif Ali Zardari |
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| Style | His Exellency |
| Residence | Aiwan-e-Sadr |
| Appointer | Electoral College |
| Term length | Five years, renewable once |
| Inaugural holder | Iskandar Mirza |
| Formation | March 2, 1956 |
| Website | www.president.gov.pk |
| Part of a series on Orders of succession |
| Presidencies |
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| See also
Template:Orders of succession
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orders of succession |
The President of Pakistan (Urdū: صدر مملیكت 'Sadr-e-Mumlikat') is the head of state, as well as figurehead, of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Recently passed an XVIII Amendment (Eighteenth Amendment), Pakistan has a parliamentary democratic system of government. According to the Constitution, the President is chosen by the Electoral College to serve a five-year term. The electoral college comprises the Senate, National Assembly, and the provincial assemblies. The president may be re-elected but may not serve for more than two consecutive terms. The president may also be impeached and subsequently removed from office by a two-thirds vote by Parliament.
The position of President in Pakistan is traditionally one of a figurehead with actual central chief executive powers lying with the Prime Minister who led the appointments of many important government offices. However, at various times in history, often related with military coups and the subsequent return of civilian governments, changes in the constitution have altered the powers and privileges associated with the office of the president. Under the XVII Amendment (Seventeenth Amendment) of the Constitution of Pakistan, the XVII gave the president reserve powers - subject to Supreme Court approval or veto - to dissolve the National Assembly, triggering new elections, and thereby to dismiss the Prime Minister. This act drafted and passed by General Pervez Musharraf and his government, politically enhanced the powers of President and put the country's system to semi-presidential system.
However, in 2010, with the successful and unanimous passing of Amendment XVIII (the Eighteenth Amendment) of the Constitution of Pakistan, the reserve powers of the President, and to dissolve the National Assembly, triggering new elections, and thereby to dismiss the Prime Minister— has been reverted by XVIII Amendment. The XVIII Amendment also paved the way for a parliamentary democratic system of government. The current constitution makes the Presidency a figurehead position with central and chief executive powers lays with the Prime minister. The President is the Chairman of the National Security Council, with Prime Minister as Vice-Chairman of the National Security Council. The President serves as the Commander-in-Chief of the Pakistan Armed Forces, under advised and recommendation received by the Prime Minister whose confirmation is also required, appoints the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee as well as Chiefs of the Army, Navy, Air Force and Colonel-Commandant Marines. The Official residence and the Principal workplace of the President is the Presidency in Islamabad.
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Following the successful imposition of the 1956 constitution, the office of Governor-General was replaced with the President. The 1956 constitution provided Pakistan the parliamentary system, and Major-General (retired) Iskander Ali Mirza became country's first president, who was also at that time was the last Governor General. In 1958, Mirza abrogated the constitution and declared martial law, later suspend the constitution. Mirza appointed Army Commander-in-Chief General Ayub Khan as the first Chief Martial Law Administrator to impose the martial law. A few weeks later, Mirza was overthrown in a bloodless coup d'état by General Ayub Khan, who then declared himself President. In 1962, the new constitution was revised and, the President's law drafting team made extension towards the constitution, and drove the country to became the Presidential republic, with Khan became the presidential ruler of Pakistan. The constitution also stipulated that the President should be elected by the people of Pakistan, and the calls of elections began to take place. Pressured and international calls forced President Khan to held the presidential elections therefore, elections were held in 1965. He faced a fierce opposition from sister of founder of Pakistan, Fatima Jinnah, who managed to have support from all over the Pakistan.
Khan rigged the elections to defeated dr. Fatima Jinnah, and used the Corps of Military Police to crush the Urdu-speaking class who had been supportive towards the Jinnah. After this actions, Khan appointed the active duty officers in his presidency while he too was actively serving in the Army. After the 1965 fall war with India, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Sheikh Mujibur Rahman increased the pressure on Khan, who widely believed that the elections were rigged, to step down. Both tapped the anti-Ayub wave in Pakistan, spontaneous and wide demonstration weakened the Military President. Soon Khan suffered an fierce attack of paralysis and was unable to governed the country. Therefore, in 1969, Khan surrendered his power to his younger brother and Army Commander-in-Chief General Yahya Khan who imposed the martial law, suspended the presidential constitution and became the military President and Chief Martial Law Administrator as well. However, calls for elections continued, the new military president promised to hold the elections in 1970. After the 1970 general elections, General Khan illegally appointed Nurul Amin as Vice-President of Pakistan and later gave the office of Prime minister secretariat. Khan refused to leave the presidency and appoint Zulfikar Ali Bhutto as Vice-Prime minister and Mujib as Vice-President. Both Bhutto and Mujib refused to take these office, as these post were created illegally. Pressured and angered, Khan launched the military operations and ordered the arrests of Bhutto and Mujib at once. Khan soon faced a fierce war in East Pakistan later another war in West Pakistan which ended his reign.
Isolated and devastated with the fall of United Pakistan, Khan stepped down after the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 and Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto became the new President and first civilian chief martial law administrator. Bhutto made a move to put the country to the road to Parliamentary democracy as he approached to all of the political parties in Pakistan. In 1973, Bhutto made a breakthrough and presided the imposition of 1973 constitution. Imposition of this new constitution is considered Bhutto's and Pakistan's one of the landmark history, because this constitution reduced the presidency to a figurehead, giving central executive powers to the Prime Minister. Dost muhammad jan stepped down as President and became Prime Minister and took the control over the democratic country, symbolizing the transition. Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto was henceforth elected by legislative assembly members, not by popular vote. Popular vote would be used to directly elect the members of the National Assembly, including the Prime Minister.
On 5 July 1977, after unable to solve the civil unrest caused during the 1977 parliamentary elections, the elected and populous Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto was toppled by General Zia-ul-Haq in a military coup, who declared himself third Chief Martial Law Administrator (CMLA). General Zia suspended the constitution and enforced the martial law. General Zia refused to hold the elections, but due to international pressure, Zia held the referendum and claimed to have won this referendum. Soon after he became President, the office of presidency again became the premier position in the Pakistan government, initially he disbanded the office of Prime minister. General Zia-ul-Haq introduced military-civil lawyers the VIII Amendment (Eighth Amendment) to the Constitution of Pakistan, which gave reserve powers to the President's office. General Zia also held the non-political 1985 elections and re-established the office of Prime minister. The Military President hand-picked the Prime minister but faced a fierce opposition from the elected Prime minister who was calling for the return of parliamentary democracy. General Zia used his reserve powers given by XVIII Amendment and called for new elections in 1988. Following the mysterious deathof Zia-ul-Haq in 1988, new elections were held, and the Prime minister office regained leadership of the country.
The new civilian President Ghulam Ishaq Khan made new amendments, putting the country to Semi-presidential system, and repeatedly dismissed the governments of Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif on nepotism and corruption. Soon, he was forced to resigned and kicked out of the office due to public pressure. After the 1993 elections, Benazir Bhutto enjoyed the complete powers of Prime minister but was dismissed shortly after her own-handpicked President used the VIII Amendment.
In 1997, Nawaz Sharif secured both electoral and landslide victory on 1997 parliamentary elections, receiving the 2/3 majority in the Parliament. Due to his majority, Parliament successfully passed the XIII Amendment (13th Amendment) to the Constitution of Pakistan and XIV Amendment (14th Amendment) to the Constitution of Pakistan, successfully putting the country road back to Parliamentary democratic system. For the first time in the history of Pakistan, the office of Prime minister and Prime minister itself rose to became country's one of the powerful prime minister since its independence in 1947.
However, the 1999 coup of General Pervez Musharraf brought executive powers back to the President's office. Musharraf did not suspend the constitution, but managed to passed the PCO order, 1999 and the LFO, 2002, allowing the president to make extensive changes in the constitution. In 2002, non-party national and provincial elections were held in 2002. In December 2003, the XVII Amendment (17th Amendment) to the Constitution of Pakistan fully restored the President's powers, but made the exercise of those powers subject to approval or veto within 30 days. In January 2004, the Electoral College of Pakistan gave Musharraf a vote of confidence, as result of which he was, according to the Constitution, "deemed to be unintelligent".
In 2007, just before the expiration of his term, General Musharraf declared a state emergency and de facto martial law on 3 November 2007, and purged the judiciary of all independent-minded judges, in particular Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudry, who were against him holding the offices of President and army chief together. Earlier in a presidential election, Musharraf was able to secure 57% of votes largely due to his supporters, and massive resignations of opposition members from the assemblies, on which a decision was pending by the superior court. After the emergency the newly constituted courts under Provisional Constitutional Order issued by Musharraf as army chief, validated the presidential election and declared Musharraf the winner, who in turn took oath for another five years term as President of Pakistan.
Some constitutional experts still dispute the validity of his election according to the constitution of Pakistan. However, this became more academic when Musharraf announced them unintelligent as well and then announced his resignation (with immediate effect) in a public broadcast on 18 August 2008. In accordance with the Pakistani constitution, the Chairman of the Senate took over as Acting President, but a permanent successor would have to be elected within 30 days by the Electoral College. The Electoral College comprises the combined membership of the Senate, the National Assembly and the four Provincial Assemblies. Pakistan's Election Commission on 22 August announced that Presidential elections will be held on 6 September, and the nomination papers can be filed from 26 August.[1][2]
On 6 September 2008 Asif Ali Zardari was elected Pakistan's 13th President since 1956. Chief election commissioner Qazi Mohammad Farooq announced that "Asif Ali Zardari secured 281 votes out of the 426 valid votes polled in the parliament". His two main opponents were Saeeduzzaman Siddiqui, a former judge nominated by Nawaz Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) (PML-N), and Mushahid Hussain Sayed, who was nominated by the Pakistan Muslim League that backed Musharraf.[3][4] In Sindh, Zardari had 62 of the 65 electoral votes while his 2 main opponents got no electoral votes; in North West Frontier Province Zardari got 56 votes against 5 by Siddiqui and one by Hussain; in Baluchistan, 59 votes while Siddiqui and Hussain got 2 each.[5] BBC reported that Zardari "won 459 votes, far more than the 352 votes that would have guaranteed him victory."[6] The New York Times said that Zardari would be sworn in "as soon as Saturday night or as late as Monday or Tuesday, diplomats and officials said."[7] The election was overshadowed by the death of 12 people, after a suicide car bomber blasted a security checkpoint on the outskirts of Peshawar.[8]
On 9 September 2008, Asif Ali Zardari was sworn in as President of Pakistan. He took the oath from the Chief Justice of Pakistan, Abdul Hameed Dogar. The conservative Pakistan Muslim League (N) and the ruling party Pakistan Peoples Party's members began to call to impose the constitution of 1973 in its real picture as it was in 1973. The religious conservative MMA, the leftist socialist Awami National Party, the liberal-seculars MQM joined hands with the Pakistan Muslim League to drive the country back to parliamentary system of 1997. In 2010, the Parliament unanimously and with heavy majority, passed the XVIII Amendment (18th Amendment) to the Constitution of Pakistan, reducing and dissolving all of the presidential powers, and turning Pakistan from a semi-presidential to a parliamentary republic. The package countered and successfully reverted and dissolved the sweeping powers amassed by the Presidency under former Presidents General Pervez Musharraf and General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq and to ease political instability in Pakistan.
Pakistan has a parliamentary system of government that has been modified several times since its inception.
Article 49 of the Constitution discusses the possibility of an acting president. The constitution does not allow for a Vice President, but the Chairman of the Senate can act as an 'Acting President' in absence of President or if President's office stands vacant.
The head of state of Pakistan before 1956 was the British Monarch. For the Governors-General who represented them from 1947 to 1956, see Governor-General of Pakistan.
| Pakistan |
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| Candidate | Main supporting party | Senate | National Assembly | Punjab* | Sindh* | Balochistan | NWFP* | Total |
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| Asif Ali Zardari | Pakistan Peoples Party | 281 | 22 | 63 | 59 | 56 | 481 | |
| Saeeduzzaman Siddiqui | Pakistan Muslim League (N) | 111 | 35 | 0 | 2 | 5 | 153 | |
| Mushahid Hussain Syed | Pakistan Muslim League (Q) | 34 | 6 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 44 | |
| * Pro-rated to 65 votes | ||||||||
| Source: Dawn | ||||||||
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