History of elections in Pakistan

Since its establishment in 1947, Pakistan has an asymmetric federal government and is a federal parliamentary democratic republic. At the national level, people elects a bicameral legislature, the Parliament of Pakistan, which consists of a directly elected National Assembly (a lower house) and Senate (upper house), whose members are chosen by elected provincial legislators. The head of government, that is Prime Minister, is elected by the majority members of the National Assembly while the Electoral College, which consists of both houses of Parliament together with the four provincial assemblies, elects the head of state (as well figurehead), the President. In addition to the national parliament and the provincial assemblies, Pakistan also has more than five thousand elected local governments.

Responsibility of holding elections are conducted under the supervision of constitutionally established institution, the Election Commission of Pakistan, which is chaired by the appointed and designated Chief Election Commissioner. Furthermore, the Pakistan Constitution defines (to a basic extent) how general elections are held, in Part VIII, Chapter 2 and various amendments. As of current, a multi-party system is in effect, with the National Assembly consists of 342 seats and the Senate consists of 100 seats elected from the four provinces. By Constitution, the general elections are held in every five consecutive years when the National Assembly completing its term (unless the National Assembly has been sooner dissolved) while the Senate elections are held to elect member for term of 6 years. By law, a general election must be held within a period of two month immediately following the day when the National Assembly completed its term.

For complete details of past election please click on the link below:

• General elections from 1954 to 2013