ABSTRACT

Judiciary plays a significant role in a political and constitutional development of the states, where a federal system exists. In such countries, the sustenance of democracy depends mainly on the independence of judiciary. The 8th Constitutional Amendment shifted the power balance into the office of the President in Pakistan. Due to the lack of power balance in a parliamentary system, the president and the prime minister did not work together to safeguard the national interest. Instead to serve as a check on the elected government and provide stability to the democratic, the President of Pakistan always used this power to dismantle the elected setup. The opposition always asked the President to dismiss the elected governments. In such cases, the judiciary, having the power of judicial review, has been asked to play its role, however, the judgements of judiciary in such cases had far reaching effects on the stability of political system. The judiciary while passing the judgement, looked at a powerful President and the demand of the people than the principle of merit and justice. The judiciary upheld three out of four dismissals of the elected governments, mainly due to the nexus between the military leadership and President of that time, which shows its weakness vis-à-vis other state institutions.This paper focuses on the role of judiciary played to complement the dictatorial moves made by the presidents against the elected governments, which were often supported by the military establishment. Keywords: Democracy, Opposition, Military, Prime Minister and Supreme Court

https://ijbpas.com/pdf/2018/January/1514650654MS IJBPAS 2017 4357.pdf

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