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KEY FACTS Joined Commonwealth: 1947 (left in 1972, rejoined in 1989) Population: 176,745,000 (2011) GNI p.c.: US$1,120 (2011) UN HDI 2011: world ranking 145 Geography Area: 796,095 sq km Coastline: 1,050 km Capital: Islamabad Pakistan lies just north of the Tropic of Cancer, bordering (clockwise from west) Iran, Afghanistan, China and India. The Arabian Sea lies to the south. The country comprises four provinces: (from south to north) Sindh, Balochistan, Punjab and Khyber Pukhtoonkhwa (formerly North-West Frontier Province). The territory adjoining Khyber Pukhtoonkhwa is known as the Federally Administered Tribal Areas and the Pakistani-administered parts of Jammu and Kashmir in the north-east as Azad Kashmir and Northern Areas. Constitution Status: Republic Legislature: Parliament of Pakistan Independence: 14 August 1947 The constitution in force at the time of the October 1999 coup was promulgated in 1973. The first amendment was introduced in 1974 and the fourteenth, in 1997. Much of it was suspended from 1977 and restored in December 1985. It was again suspended by the military government after the October 1999 coup, and was partially restored in November 2002, following the parliamentary elections. On 19 April 2010 far-reaching constitutional reforms (the Eighteenth Amendment Bill) were signed into law, reducing key presidential powers and broadening the distribution of power within the government. The President no longer has the power to dismiss the Prime Minister or the parliament. The constitution proclaims Pakistan to be Islamic and democratic, with fundamental rights guaranteed, including the freedoms of thought, speech, religion and worship, assembly, association, and the press, as well as equality of status. Commonwealth Governance 234 Handbook 2013/14 Under this constitution, the President is Head of State and is elected for five years by an electoral college consisting of the members of both houses of parliament and of the four provincial assemblies. Until April 1997, the President had certain discretionary powers including the power to dissolve the National Assembly. These powers were restored by the military government immediately before the elections in October 2002 through the Legal Framework Order (LFO) together with other amendments. Under the eighteenth amendment of April 2010, however, the President’s role once again became largely ceremonial. There is a bicameral legislature. The lower house is the National Assembly. From 2002 the Assembly had 342 members, comprising 272 members directly elected for five years by adult suffrage, plus 60 women and ten representatives of minorities (non-Muslims). These seats reserved for women and minorities’ representatives are allocated proportionally to all parties gaining more than five per cent of the directly elected seats. The Prime Minister is Pakistan The designations and the presentation of material on this map, based on UN practice, do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Commonwealth Secretariat or the publishers concerning the legal status of any country, territory or area, or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. There is no intention to define the status of Jammu and/or Kashmir, which has not yet been agreed upon by the parties.


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