Editing Politics of Pakistan (section)

==Executive branch==
The current and former Presidents of Pakistan, in keeping with the constitutional provision that the state religion is Islam, must be Muslim. Elected for a five-year term by an [[Electoral College of Pakistan|Electoral College]] consisting of members of the Senate and National Assembly and members of the provincial assemblies, the president is eligible for re-election. But no individual may hold the office for more than two consecutive terms. The president may resign or be impeached and may be removed from office due to incapacity or gross misconduct by a two-thirds vote of the members of the parliament. The president generally acts on the advice of the prime minister but has important [[Reserve power|residual powers]].

In the past one of these powers —a legacy of military dictator General [[Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq]]— has included the president's discretionary ability to dissolve the National Assembly when "a situation has arisen in which the Government of the Federation cannot be carried on in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution and an appeal to the electorate is necessary."<ref>{{cite web | url=https://pakistani.org/pakistan/constitution/amendments/8amendment.html | title=The Eighth Amendment }}</ref> This power has twice been granted&nbsp;—by the [[Eighth Amendment to the Constitution of Pakistan|Eighth Amendment]] in 1985 (under the Zia dictatorship) and by the [[Seventeenth Amendment to the Constitution of Pakistan|Seventeenth Amendment]] in 2003 (under the military rule of General [[Pervez Musharraf]]) —and has twice been revoked— by the [[Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution of Pakistan|Thirteenth Amendment]] in 1997 (by the [[Pakistan Muslim League (N)]]) and under the [[Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution of Pakistan|Eighteenth Amendment]] in 2010 (by the [[Pakistan Peoples Party]]). Despite this most recent power-stripping, the President remains the ''ex officio'' chair of the [[National Security Council of Pakistan|National Security Council]], as per the National Security Act 2004.

The prime minister is appointed by the members of the National Assembly through a vote. The prime minister is assisted by the Federal Cabinet, a council of ministers whose members are appointed by the president on the advice of the prime minister. The Federal Cabinet consists of ministers, ministers of state, and advisers. As of early 1994, there were thirty-three ministerial portfolios: commerce; communications; culture; defence; defence production; education; environment; finance and economic affairs; food and agriculture; foreign affairs; health; housing; information and broadcasting; interior; Kashmiri affairs and Northern Areas; law and justice; local government; minority affairs; narcotics control; parliamentary affairs; petroleum and natural resources production; planning and development; railways; religious affairs; science and technology; social welfare; special education; sports; state and frontier regions; tourism; water and power; women's development; and youth affairs.