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Women's political participation is sine qua non of women's empowerment movement. Pakistan is a developing democracy where citizens are given equal political rights without any gender discrimination. The Provincial Assembly of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa elected a female as Deputy Speaker for the first time. Report of various organizations on 2013 general elections declared that women's participation in politics have strengthened its roots in Pakistan. Mardan is the 19th largest city of Pakistan and 2nd most populous district of KP Province. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is the most affected province of Pakistan in the war against global terrorism nevertheless in the 2013 general elections, the province generally and district Mardan especially witnessed increase in women's political participation. An encouraging number of women casted their votes, contested election, and launched elections campaigns. The research is qualitative and is based on primary and secondary sources. The study explores the changing trends of women's politics in Mardan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Expectations in Pakistan rose, when for the first time, in its history a political government in 2013 completed its full term of office and was replaced not by the military but by another political government after being defeated at the ballot box. It raises questions about what kind of democratic space is developing and what type of hybrid regime is emergent. The paper reflects upon the concept of hybrid regime and draws out key variables: turnover, tutelage and neo-patrimonialism and then considers how to categorise development in Pakistan. It concludes that Pakistan is in a ‘gray zone’ and that during the period there was evidence of it moving towards becoming an illiberal hybrid regime but the military went on the offensive and the democratic space contracted returning to being an illiberal tutelary hybrid regime. Unless tutelage and neo-patrimonialism are not challenged Pakistan will not progress in the democratic transition and remain a hybrid regime. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Pakistani politics are characterised by strong corporate social links through kinship and caste that impose reciprocal obligations and rights. Marital maps enable allow for accurate prediction of allegiances and decision making and contribute to a transparent assessment of political processes in the country. While much of the focus on reciprocal relations has understandably been on descent relations (dynasties), the complex network of marital alliances that cut across lineage and sectarian divides helps explain notable levels of stability despite the fragility of the state and other public institutions. Using the example of one of the most successful political dynasties in post independence Pakistan, we show the extent of cross lineage, region and even party alliances that shape this political kinship network. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A year after assuming power, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's government faced a political crisis fomented by the pro-military opposition leader Imran Khan, who mobilized his supporters to protest alleged electoral rigging in the 2013 poll. Khan had to call off the protests after the Pakistani Taliban's grisly terrorist attack on an army-run school in retaliation for the army's offensive against them in North Waziristan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article argues that in the wake of 9/11, Pakistan engaged in two policy moves that were highly problematic and controversial from a domestic perspective: the alliance with the United States, and the simultaneous disengagement with the Taliban regime. While realist accounts largely posit these moves as a consequence of US diktat, this article is more interested in exploring how the actions were enabled by a domestic political narrative. Scholarly accounts in the post 9/11 era tend to marginalise the role of indigenous agency and ‘voice’, and overwhelmingly work within frameworks that emphasise the consequential effects of US hegemony. Conversely, in examining official Pakistani political discourses, the article argues that a number of identifiable rhetorical strategies played a performative role in enabling specific Pakistani policy outcomes in the wake of 9/11. In important ways, the analysis moves away from unproblematically assuming Pakistan as simply a passive recipient of American ‘empire’. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Why do some militaries retain high authoritarian prerogatives during transitions from militarized authoritarian rule? The Pakistan military's 2007 extrication shows that an important part of the answer lies in the level of structural differentiation between the “military government” and the “military institution”. Despite sustained contentious opposition to military rule, the high level of separation between these two military dimensions of the state allowed the institutional military to delink itself from the discredited dictatorship and exit on its own terms. In the post-authoritarian context, the military has preserved its expansive prerogatives by using a variety of adaptive contestation mechanisms – including the mobilization of the media and the judiciary – that act as a continuing source of political instability and uncertainty. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

On May 11 2013 Pakistani general elections have inaugurated what is considered to be the first civilian succession in the country's 66 years independent history. The victory of Nawaz Shariff remains embedded in high expectations due to his entrepreneurial background and conciliatory rhetoric towards India. Third time prime minister, Shariff's mandate must tackle huge economic problems as Pakistan trembles on the brink of statehood failure. On the other hand the arrest and indictment of former strongman, Pervez Musharaff adds another first timer to the routinization of Pakistani political life. Never before a military ruler has faced prosecution. However optimism must follow a moderate pace as surprises may still unfold: either from the military brass, reluctant to give away a former boss, either from Pakistani Talibans and other extremist groups. For the American part, Washington's shuttle diplomacy tries to maintain a non zero-sum balance between New Delhi and Islamabad as each of them may trigger mayhem in the proximity of a shaky Afghanistan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multi tier system is considered the best device to manage governmental affairs in modern state systems. Local Government is at the tail of ladder and considered as vehicle of economic and political development in any society. Consequently, most of the states central as well as federal adopted this mechanism. The objective is to ensure political participation, equal distribution of resources, uplift far flung areas and to provide justice at the door step to the people of a nation state. A constructive, effective and balanced administrative, financial, political and social interaction between various tiers of the government is a pre-requisite for efficient and successful operation of adopted mechanism. Local government institution is efficiently operating in Pakistan since its emergence. However, some time it confronted with serious crisis. Policy makers of Pakistan reformed the system time to time to address the emerging issues. Intergovernmental relations remained under question in various experiences. This article is to evaluate inter-governmental relations intra-governmental relations under different local Government systems operated by government of Pakistan at different time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Federalism approaches a significant transformation in Pakistan in the repercussion of 18th amendment. The amendment produces a facet of loose federalism which is relevant with United States of America (USA) federal model. The paper examines the features of federalism in Pakistan and USA in comparative perspectives in post 18th amendment paradigm and find out its various features. The research concludes that, to accelerate a balanced federalism which is a feature of USA, constitutional transition and democracy will play a vital role in Pakistan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study analyses some political factors determining budget deficit in Pakistan. It examines the short and long-run relationship between the Budget deficit, democracy and cabinet size for Pakistan's economy. The bounds testing approach to co-integration and (ECM) error-correction models, developed within an autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) framework is applied to annual data for the period 1976 to 2009 in order to investigate whether a long-run equilibrium relationship exists between the budget deficit and these factors. The result of the bounds test indicates that there exist long-run relationship between the budget deficit and political variables. The results provide strong evidence that large government size will significantly add to the budget deficit. The democracy can help in reducing budget deficit but shows a weaker influence in case of Pakistan for the sample period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]