While there had previously been local and indirect government elections, the polls of 1970...
Answers
1. D
While there had previously been local and indirect government elections, the polls of 1970 were the first general elections held in Pakistan, and the only ones held in the country while it still comprised of East and West Pakistan, ultimately playing a role in the secession of the former. The main contest was between Awami League - the major party in East Pakistan, which ultimately emerged victorious (160 seats) - and Pakistan Peoples Party - the leading party in West Pakistan (81 seats).
2. C
Nawabzada Liaquat Ali Khan (1895 - 1951) was the first Prime Minister of Pakistan. He was appointed to the post in 1947 after partition by the founding fathers of Pakistan and served till his assassination in 1951.
3. B
General elections have been held ten times in Pakistani history: in 1970, 1977, 1985, 1988, 1990, 1993, 1997, 2002, 2008, and 2013.
The 2018 elections will be eleventh.
4. B
The minimum age for a prime minister is 35.
5. D
A presidential candidate must not be less than 45 years old.
6. C
The total number of seats in the National Assembly is 342, out of which 272 are filled by direct elections. The remaining are reserved for women (60) and religious minorities (10), and are filled “by proportional representation among parties with more than 5% of the vote”.
7. A
PPP has won the election four times: 1977, 1988, 1993, and 2008.
PML-N has won twice (1997, 2013), while the PML-led alliance IJI won once (1990), as did PML-Q (2002).
8. A
There have been three major military coups in Pakistan - in 1958 (General Ayub Khan), 1977 (General Zia-ul-Haq), and 1999 (General Pervez Musharraf) - as a result of which the country has spent several decades under military rule (1958 - 1971, 1977 - 1988, and 1999 - 2008).
9. C
PTI was founded in April 1996 by former Pakistani cricket team captain Imran Khan.
10. B
The PPP’s symbol is the sword, the sign the party used during Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s era, while the symbol of PPP-Parliamentarians (PPPP) is the arrow. As for the other major political parties, their symbols are:
11. D
Benazir Bhutto (1953 - 2007) - the first female prime minister in a Muslim-majority country - was Pakistan’s youngest Prime Minister. She was also the first elected head of government to give birth while in office.
12. A
This one’s a little tricky.
Liaquat Ali Khan served as the prime minister for four years, two months, and two days (~1524 days) from 1947 to 1951.
Yousaf Raza Gilani served for four years, two months, and 25 days (~1547 days) in that office, which, at the time made him the longest serving PM, but later a Supreme Court decision retroactively reduced his term by nearly two months (~1494 days), which means that Liaquat Ali Khan remains the longest serving PM of Pakistan.
As for non-consecutive terms, Nawaz Sharif’s three terms give him the longest aggregate, making him the longest non-consecutively serving prime minister.
- S.A.
