Challenges to Parliamentary Authority in Pakistan: An Analysis of Constitutional, Political, Institutional, and Societal Constraints
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.62843/jrsr/2026.v.iii.210Keywords:
Parliamentary Authority, Constitutional Constraints, Civil–Military Relations, Political Instability, Legislative Oversight, Democratic Governance, PakistanAbstract
According to the Constitution of 1973, the Parliament of Pakistan, known as Majlis-e-Shoora, has far-reaching constitutional powers and responsibilities in the areas of legislation, finance, and accountability. However, over the course of democratic periods, a long-standing and analytically relevant disconnect exists between its institutional performance and its formal constitutional mandate. The article explores four analytically distinct but empirically interconnected dimensions of multiple constraints. These are: the constitutional constraints from executive ordinance power, ambiguities in the anti-defection framework, and the progressive judicialization of political disputes (the judicial interpretations); the political constraints of governmental instability, coalition fragility, weak intra-party democracy, and electoral credibility deficits; institutional constraints related to the dysfunction of the committee system, legislative capacity deficits, and parliamentary research infrastructure shortcomings; the civil-military structural imbalance, working as a structural constraint on parliamentary sovereignty; and the socio-political constraints such as elite capture, dynastic politics, civic disengagement, and media polarization. Based on qualitative content analysis, the article demonstrates that various constraints affecting Pakistan's constitutionally empowered Parliament are interconnected. This results in the Parliament often supporting the executive rather than shaping it, indicating that the combined effects of these constraints are more significant than their individual impacts. Further, any efforts to improve any one of the categories of constraint, no matter how successful, will not lead to basic improvements in the authority of parliament. This multi-dimensional character of the parliamentary constraint in Pakistan necessitates a multi-dimensional approach to reform. The article ends with a series of targeted research suggestions that point to some of the most promising areas for future research on the parliamentary system in Pakistan.
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