Under its Constitution of 1973, Pakistan is a federal parliamentary republic. The constitution came into force on 14 August 1973 and names the country the Islamic Republic of Pakistan with Islam as the state religion. The president is a largely ceremonial head of state. The current president, Asif Ali Zardari, took office on 10 March 2024. Executive power lies with the prime minister and cabinet, led since March 2024 by Shehbaz Sharif of the Pakistan Muslim League (N). The legislature, the Majlis-e-Shoora, has two houses: the 336-seat National Assembly and the 96-seat Senate. The federation has four provinces, Punjab, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan, plus the Islamabad Capital Territory. Constitutional amendments in 2024 and 2025 reshaped the higher courts and created a separate Federal Constitutional Court.
Drafting the 1973 Constitution after the loss of East Pakistan
The 1973 document is Pakistan's third constitution. Until 1956 the country was a dominion, run under an adapted Government of India Act 1935. The first constitution, promulgated on 23 March 1956, made Pakistan an "Islamic Republic" with a single-chamber National Assembly of 300 members split equally between East and West Pakistan. Pakistan still marks that date as Republic Day. The 1956 text lasted only until 7 October 1958, when President Iskander Mirza imposed martial law. Within three weeks General Ayub Khan had removed Mirza. Ayub's 1962 constitution abolished the office of prime minister and put executive power in the hands of the president. It was suspended in 1969 and abrogated in 1972.
The break-up of the country in December 1971, when East Pakistan became Bangladesh, cleared the way for a new start. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, whose Pakistan People's Party had won most seats in the west in the 1970 election, called a constitutional convention of party leaders on 17 April 1972. The resulting draft was the first Pakistani constitution framed by elected representatives. It passed the National Assembly in April 1973 and took effect on 14 August 1973, the 26th anniversary of independence. Bhutto then gave up the presidency to Fazal Ilahi and became prime minister.
Articles 1 to 6: federation, Islam, the Objectives Resolution and high treason
The opening articles set out the state's basic character. Article 1 declares Pakistan a federal republic called the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Article 2 makes Islam the state religion. Article 2A brings the Objectives Resolution, adopted by the Constituent Assembly on 12 March 1949, into the body of the constitution. That resolution declares that sovereignty belongs to God and is exercised by the people's chosen representatives. It also promises that minorities may freely profess and practise their religions. Article 6 defines high treason as abrogating, subverting or suspending the constitution by unconstitutional means. Since 2010 it has also barred any court, including the Supreme Court, from validating such an act.
The Federal Shariat Court, the Council of Islamic Ideology and the language articles
Further Islamic provisions run through the text. No law may be made that is "repugnant" to the injunctions of Islam as set out in the Quran and Sunnah. The Council of Islamic Ideology, first created in 1962, advises Parliament on whether bills conform. The Federal Shariat Court, added in 1980 under General Zia-ul-Haq, can strike down laws it finds un-Islamic. The president must be a Muslim aged at least 45. Urdu is the national language and English the official language. The Second Amendment of 1974, passed unanimously, declared Ahmadis to be non-Muslims, a provision that remains in force.
The constitution also built in federal machinery. The Council of Common Interests, chaired by the prime minister, brings the four provincial chief ministers together with an equal number of federal ministers nominated by the prime minister. It was this council that approved the results of the 2023 digital census on 5 August 2023. The National Finance Commission divides federal revenue among the provinces.
President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif: two offices since March 2024
The president is elected for five years by an electoral college made up of the Senate, the National Assembly and the four provincial assemblies, voting by secret ballot. Zardari, a PPP politician and widower of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, began his second term on 10 March 2024. He had first held the office from 2008 to 2013. He is the 14th president, and he lives and works at the Aiwan-e-Sadr in Islamabad. The president is supreme commander of the armed forces, but he is bound to act on the advice of the prime minister and cabinet. When he is absent, the chairman of the Senate acts in his place.
The prime minister is elected by the National Assembly and must keep its confidence. The constitution calls the post the "chief executive" of the republic. The holder leads the cabinet, chairs the Council of Common Interests and heads the National Command Authority, which controls Pakistan's nuclear arsenal. Shehbaz Sharif, born in 1951, was elected on 3 March 2024 with 201 votes against 92 for the PTI-backed Omar Ayub Khan. He had already been prime minister from 2022 to 2023 and is the only person to hold the office for two consecutive terms. He also served as chief minister of Punjab for a combined total of more than 12 years. Even so, because of the military's influence, the Chief of Army Staff is widely seen as the most powerful office in the country in practice.
The Majlis-e-Shoora: a 336-seat National Assembly and a 96-seat Senate
Article 50 defines Parliament as the president plus two houses, both housed in Parliament House in Islamabad's Red Zone. Under Article 51 the National Assembly has 336 seats. Of these, 266 are filled by first-past-the-post in single-member constituencies, 60 are reserved for women and 10 for non-Muslims. The reserved seats are shared out by proportional representation among parties that win general seats. The assembly sits for five years unless the president dissolves it early on the prime minister's advice.
The Senate, created by Article 59 in 1973, gives the federating units equal weight. Each provincial assembly elects 23 senators, and four represent the Islamabad Capital Territory. The house shrank from 104 seats to 96 after the former tribal areas lost their separate senators. Senators serve six years, with half retiring every three years. Because it cannot be dissolved, the Senate provides continuity when the National Assembly is between terms. Amending the constitution needs a two-thirds majority in both houses. An amendment that changes a province's boundaries also needs that province's assembly, which is why the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly voted on the Twenty-fifth Amendment as well.
The 8 February 2024 election and the PML-N–PPP coalition
The 16th National Assembly was elected on 8 February 2024, in a contest shaped by the removal of Imran Khan as prime minister through a no-confidence vote in 2022 and his later conviction and imprisonment. A Supreme Court ruling stripped Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf of its electoral symbol, so its candidates stood as independents. They still won more general seats than any party.
Domestic observers and several foreign governments, including the United States, the United Kingdom and the European Union, raised concerns about the fairness of the count. The PTI alleged rigging and declined to form a coalition with the other main parties, choosing opposition instead. On 13 February 2024 the PML-N and PPP agreed to govern together with Shehbaz Sharif as prime minister, backed by the MQM-P, PML-Q, the Balochistan Awami Party and the Istehkam-e-Pakistan Party. Reserved seats for women and minorities were then allocated to every party except the PTI.
From the Eighth Amendment of 1985 to the Eighteenth of 2010
Much of Pakistan's constitutional history is a struggle over the balance between president and prime minister. After the 1977 coup, General Zia-ul-Haq held the constitution in abeyance until 1985. He restored it only with the Eighth Amendment, whose Article 58(2)(b) let the president dissolve the National Assembly and dismiss the government whenever he judged an "appeal to the electorate" necessary. Nawaz Sharif's government removed that power with the Thirteenth Amendment in 1997. After General Pervez Musharraf took power in 1999, the Seventeenth Amendment partially restored the president's powers.
The Eighteenth Amendment reversed the pattern. The National Assembly passed it on 8 April 2010 and the Senate on 15 April. When President Zardari signed it on 19 April 2010, it was the first time a Pakistani president had willingly given up a large share of his powers. It ended the president's power to dissolve the assembly at his own discretion, returning Pakistan to a parliamentary republic. It renamed the North-West Frontier Province as Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and transferred significant legislative and financial autonomy to the provinces. The Twenty-fifth Amendment of May 2018 then merged the Federally Administered Tribal Areas into Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
The 26th (2024) and 27th (2025) Amendments and the new Federal Constitutional Court
The most recent changes have centred on the courts and the military command. The Twenty-sixth Amendment, passed on 20–21 October 2024, ended the Supreme Court's practice of taking up cases on its own motion (suo motu). It capped the Chief Justice of Pakistan's tenure at three years and set up constitutional benches. It also gave a 12-member parliamentary committee the power to choose the chief justice from the three most senior judges. Yahya Afridi was sworn in as chief justice under the new rules on 26 October 2024. The same amendment added Article 9A, a right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment.
The Twenty-seventh Amendment, passed on 13 November 2025, went further. It created a Federal Constitutional Court with exclusive jurisdiction over constitutional interpretation and disputes between the federation and the provinces. President Zardari appointed Aminuddin Khan as its first chief justice on 14 November 2025. The amendment also rewrote Article 243 on command of the armed forces. It abolished the post of Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee from 27 November 2025 and made the Chief of Army Staff the Chief of Defence Forces. The government said the reforms modernised governance. Critics, including two Supreme Court judges, Syed Mansoor Ali Shah and Athar Minallah, who resigned in protest, said they weakened judicial independence.
For the federating units these institutions serve, see our guide to the provinces and territories of Pakistan. Our profile of Islamabad covers the planned capital where Parliament and the courts sit, and the constitution's Islamic provisions are set in context in our article on religion in Pakistan.