ROLL NO.

19011515-022

MID-TERM EXAMINATION
(2021)
SUBMITTED BY
TAYYABA SIDDIQUE
ROLL NO:
19011515-022
SUBMITTED TO
DR. MUHAMMAD MUSHTAQ
COURSE TITLE:
INTRO TO PARLIAMENTARY STUDIES
COURSE CODE:
POL-226
SUBMISSITION DATE:
26TH APRIL, 2021
BS .POLITICAL SCIENCE
SEMESTER 4TH
DEPARTMENT OF POLITICAL SCIENCE AND IR

UNIVERSITY OF GUJRAT

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Note: Give short answers of the following questions. All question carries equal marks.

1) What are the basic organs of government?

Legislature, Executive and Judiciary are the three organs of the government. The functions of each
are

Legislature-

It forms laws and procedures, along with examining the administration and its resolutions

Executive-

It comprised of the President or Governor, Council of Minister at Union or State level, along with
the administration which executes and enforces laws made by legislature.

Judiciary-

The Supreme Court (SC) at the top level to the community courts at the bottom. They interpret the
laws made.

2) How the role of legislature is different in dictatorial regimes from the democratic
systems?

The legislature varies across regimes and across time. Consider, for example, Venezuela's
President Nicolas Maduro. Amid an economic crisis, the opposition in the National Assembly
initiated a referendum in 2016 to impeach him. Maduro responded to the threat not only by
shutting down the National Assembly, but also by calling for an overhaul to the constitution to
allow him to circumvent the National Assembly on a permanent basis. Instances like these
highlight the often fragile environment in which parliaments and executives coexist. Parliaments
may very well serve important functions in authoritarian regimes, but the powers they possess
make them a double-edged sword. On the one hand, the legislature offers an institutional solution
to temporary regime threats, enabling the leader to co-opt opponents and diminish their destructive
potential. On the other hand, more powerful legislatures are better able to constrain the ruler‟s
decision-making. If the opposition gains control of such a legislature, they can successfully
leverage that institutional power to marginalize, and perhaps even remove, the leader. As a result,
the leader has an incentive to maintain a legislature, albeit one with limited power.

Absent other formal institutions, the strength of the legislature is an important indicator of the
power asymmetry that characterizes the relationship between the leader and critical actors. This is

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especially so for the past, in which party cohesion and interparty competition were historically
low. Understanding the relationship between executive and legislative power – what legislatures
can do and the ways in which it is reinforced or undermined – is thus valuable for explaining
differences in regimes and political outcomes, particularly where other institutions are not fully
developed. For this reason, we exploit the variation in the powers attributed to legislatures to
characterize their strength across regimes, with the aim of supporting research that could explain
this variation.

As Judge pointed out, “other than in agreeing that institutionalization is a process whereby
legislatures develop discrete modes of internal organization which help to differentiate them from
their political environment, there is little agreement as to exactly what its defining core
characteristics are.” While institutionalization has been conceptualized in a number of ways –
including increasing adaptability, complexity, autonomy and coherence– our use of the term refers
to the process by which legislatures acquire value as a result of taking on additional roles and
responsibilities and becoming more autonomous. To that end, we are primarily interested in using
information on legislative capabilities and autonomy to indicate greater institutional capacity and
complexity through expanded functions. We argue that changes in the powers of the legislature,
both nominal and observed, provide an informative gauge of parliamentary strength vis-à-vis the
executive.

3) Write any three provisions of the Objective Resolution.

The resolution proclaimed that the future constitution of Pakistan would not be modeled entirely
on a European pattern, but on the ideology and democratic faith of Islam . The resolution, in its
entirety, has been made part of the Constitution of Pakistan under Article 2(A).
Objectives Resolution
The Pakistani Objectives Resolution proclaimed the following principles:
1. Sovereignty over the entire universe belongs to Allah Almighty alone and the authority which
He has delegated to the state of Pakistan, through its people for being exercised within the limits
prescribed by Him is a sacred trust.
2. This Constituent Assembly representing the people of Pakistan resolves to frame a constitution
for the sovereign independent state of Pakistan.
3. The state shall exercise its powers and authority through the chosen representatives of the
people.
4. The principles of democracy, freedom, equality, tolerance and social justice, as enunciated by

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Islam, shall be fully observed.

5. The Muslims shall be enabled to order their lives in the individual and collective spheres in
accordance with the teachings and requirements of Islam as set out in the Holy
Quran and Sunnah .
6. Adequate provision shall be made for the minorities to freely progress and practice their
religions and develop their cultures.
7. Pakistan shall be a federation and its constituent units will be autonomous.
8. Fundamental rights shall be guaranteed. They include equality of status, of opportunity and
before law, social, economic and political justice, and freedom of thought, expression, belief, faith,
worship and association, subject to law and public morality.
9. Adequate provisions shall be made to safeguard the legitimate interests of minorities and
backward and depressed classes.
10. The independence of the judiciary shall be fully secured.
11. The integrity of the territories of the federation, its independence and all its rights, including its
sovereign right

4) What are the financial functions of legislature in modern democracies?

The struggle for parliamentary control over taxes and public spending played a central role in the
development of modern democracy.

The legislature plays an important role in shaping the annual budget and in providing budgetary
oversight. When fiscal policies and medium-term budgetary objectives are debated in parliament
and annual budget laws are adopted by the legislature, budget strategies and policies are
“owned” by the elected representatives. If the legislature is bypassed or is inactive in budget
decision making, fiscal policies are decided by government politicians on the advice of
unelected officials. In the absence of strong accountability arrangements on the government,
there is a risk that budgetary policies reflect the wishes of unelected elites. In summary, the
active engagement of parliament in the budget process is usually considered to be an essential
part of democracy.

5) Give three arguments in favor of Bicameral parliament.

Debate in favor of Bicameralparliament:

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1. Modifying influence on Legislation:

The second chamber acts as a brake against the hasty, ill-considered and rash legislation passed by
the lower chamber. It acts as „a check on hasty legislation‟. The lower chambers arc generally
elected by direct vote of the people . They are liable to be swayed by popular passions.

As Lecky points out, “the second chamber exercises a controlling, modifying, retarding and
steadying influence on legislation. A single chamber constituted on the basis of universal adult
franchise is radical.

“By interposing delay between the introduction and the final adoption of a measure, the second
house permits time for further reflection and deliberation.” It is, therefore, necessary to have a
second chamber to check radicalism.

2. Representation of Minorities:

The upper chamber can be used for giving representation to the minorities and other special
interests which cannot get adequate representation in the lower popular chamber.

3. Utility in a Federation:

A second chamber is very useful for a federation because representation to the units of a federation
can be given in the second chamber.

The lower chamber in federation is supposed to represent the national interests whereas the upper
chamber gives representation to the local and specific interests of the units.

6) Give three arguments in favor Unicameral parliament.

One advantage of a unicameral legislature is that it is democratic. Democratic tenets postulate that
people who make laws for the masses must be elected in a free and fair election. Members of a
unicameral chamber are directly elected by the people, which make it democratic.

 Unicameral legislature is easy to maintain, that is, it is cheaper to run than bicameral
legislature, since there is no second chamber to maintain.
 Unicameral legislature is also known to be ideal for unitary states.

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 Unicameral legislature prevents conflicts as to which of the houses is upper and which
is lower.
 Unicameral legislature provides room for a faster process of law making and is
applicable in moments of emergency.
7) Why federations adopt Bicameral legislature?

Bicameralism is an essential feature of federalism. It is indispensable for a federation to safeguard

the rights of smaller units and to accommodate the diversity in the legislature. For this purpose, the
upper house of the bicameral legislature, known variously including the Senate, provides a feasible
platform to the units for representation on the principle of equality. Therefore, it is almost evitable
for all federations, to have the upper house. Pakistan adopted bicameralism in 1973, though it
became a federation in 1947 but remained under a unicameral legislature according to early two
constitutions (of 1956 and 1962) which severely compromised the basic essentials of federalism.
However, the Constitution of 1973 finally provided a bicameral legislature for the development of
federalism. Even then the country could not flourish as a true federation and the Senate could not
perform its basic functions well. What actually have been the lacunas in the working of the Senate
and what can be the possible remedies for them, this study aims to investigate the answers to such
questions.

8) What kind of parliament was suggested under the Bogra Formula?

The framework proposed the establishment of more effective bicameral parliament that would be
composed of National Assembly and the Senate with equal representation from then-five
provinces: Punjab, Khyber–Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan, Sindh, and Bengal. A total of 300 seats
were to be reserved for the National Assembly on the basis of proportionate representation and 50
for the Senate that would be equal representation for all the five provinces of the country.

Under this framework, the larger number of constituencies were given to Bengal which had 165
reserved seats in contrast to Punjab which had 75, Khyber–Pakhtunkhwa, which had 24, Sindh
which had 19, and Balochistan which had 17 reserved seats. Tribal areas, Karachi metropolitan
area, Bahawalpur, Khairpur, Baluchistan States Union, were combined as 24 reserved seats.

9) Why unicameral parliament was adopted in the 1956 constitution of Pakistan?

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The former of the first constitution of Pakistan , who finally decided to opt for unicameralism ,
were not unaware of utility of second chamber as a principal guarantee for country s rational and
constitutional standard of democracy. They knew that there were very few legislatures in the world
which were without second chamber and “wherever unicameralism was introduced , it was not
intended to help democracy ”

Under 1956 Constitution, Parliament was unicameral. Legislative powers vested in the Parliament,
which consisted of the President and the National Assembly comprising 300 Members divided
equally between East and West Pakistan. In addition to these 300 seats, five seats were reserved
for women for each of the two wings, for a period of ten years: thus bringing the total membership
of the House to 310.

10) How the members of 2nd Constituent Assembly of Pakistan were elected?

The composition of the Convention was based on the principle of parity of representation between
East and West Pakistan. In East Pakistan, the leader of the united front, A.K. Fazlul Haq, was
threatening to boycott the Constituent Convention on the ground that did not give East Pakistan a
majority of seats based on population. Subsequently, as a result of a deal with the Prime Minister,
Mohammad Ali, under which parliamentary institutions suspended since 1954 was restored in East
Pakistan, United Front accepted its representation. Law Minister Suhrawardi already accepted it.
Party position in the second Assembly was very different. In the first Constituent Assembly the
Muslim League had an absolute majority since it had captured almost all the Muslim seats. It was
clear that from the beginning that the Muslim League would not enjoy that position in the new
Assembly. It was in East Pakistan that out of 309 members in the East Pakistan provincial
legislature the League only had 10 members and it could get one seat from the province. In West
Pakistan, the League captured all the Muslim seats from Sindh and NWFP. In the Punjab internal
divisions prevented it from having a monopoly. It lost three seats to the dissident group led by
Malik Feroz Khan Noon. With twenty-five members in the house eighty, the Muslim League was
still the largest single party in the new Assembly.

THE END

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