The Judiciary’s Contribution to Regimes’ Hybridity in Pakistan

Authors

Nauman Reayat

Ph. D Scholar, Department of Politics, University of York, York, North Yorkshire, England

Tahira Jabeen

LLM Scholar, Faculty of Shari’ah and Law, International Islamic University, Islamabad, Pakistan

Ulfat Qasim

Assistant Professor (Law), Higher Education Department, Peshawar, KPK, Pakistan

DOI: https://doi.org/10.35484/pssr.2021(5-III)10

Keywords

Hybrid Regimes Judicial Empowerment Supreme Court of Pakistan

Abstract

The Supreme Court of Pakistan (SCP) was never as powerful in a context of hybrid regime as it emerged after the lawyers’ movement for the restoration of judiciary in March 2009. A hybrid regime is a mix of authoritarian and democratic features. The SCP decide several politically important cases against regimes’ political interests including the disqualification of two Prime Ministers for their dishonesty, striking down politically most important laws such as National Reconciliation Ordinance, Contempt of Court Act 2012, and recovery and tracing of persons missing in connection to war on terror. This empowerment contributed to distinct indicators of regime’s hybridity which has not been investigated until now. This paper examines the contribution of the SCP to regimes’ hybridity from 2005 onwards.