Courts, Constitutions and Authoritarian Consolidation in Pakistan

Abstract

In 2024, Pakistan has moved in a decisively authoritarian direction. The civilian and military hybrid ruling coalition that came to power in 2022 is using electoral engineering and constitutional entrenchment to consolidate power in the face of popular discontent and resilient political opposition. This process of electoral and constitutional consolidation does not move forward unimpeded, without resistance, and requires capturing and coordinating state institutions. In this blogpost, I show that formal constitutional safeguards provided little protection against the hybrid regime’s capture and weaponization of electoral monitoring bodies.

Keywords

• Authoritarianism
• Election Commission
• Fourth Branch
• Pakistan
• rule of law backsliding
• Pakistan