ABSTRACT
The most significant revision made by the “1985 constitution” was the replacement of a prime-ministerial dominant form of government with a presidential-dominant system. Under the terms of the 1985 constitution the president was given the power to appoint the prime minister, provincial governors, the superior judiciary, and the chiefs of the armed services. The framers of the 1985 constitution had consciously and thoroughly introduced a text that established a presidential-dominant system. Relations between the new prime minister and President Ghulam Ishaq Khan were correct, if not cordial, during the first eighteen months of the new government, but such relations began to deteriorate as Nawaz Sharif began to assert his independence. The chapter shows that the constitutional system established by Zia in 1985 has been significantly amended owing to the subsequent exercise of the presidential prerogative to dissolve elected assemblies and the resultant responses from Pakistan’s superior judiciary.
