Abstract
After independence from the British rule, Pakistan was established as a parliamentary democracy based on the Westminster model. During the first six decades of its history, the country experienced repeated disruption of democracy through military interventions. The analysts generally attributed these disruptions to the civil-military imbalance; considering the two as institutional entities and describing the institutional imbalance in terms of civil-military relationship. Dispelling this general approach, this article has undertaken analysis of the institutional imbalance in Pakistan as a disruptor of democracy in terms of the constitutional framework – focusing on the circumstances leading to the first Martial Law in 1958 in the backdrop of the 1956 Constitution. The research is pivoted on the concept of Westminster model of parliamentary democracy, which has been adopted in Pakistan’s constitutional framework from the very onset. Exploring the circumstances leading to the formulation of the first constitution of Pakistan (the 1956 Constitution), the article explains the importance of constitutional conventions in a Westminster parliamentary model, indicates the inclusion/ exclusion of conventions in the 1956 Constitution and analyses effects of these inclusions/ exclusions that contributed towards the disruption of democracy and imposition of the first Martial law in 1958.
Keyword(s)
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