bold as its innovations were compared with the functional autocracy it replaced, the constitution was filled with provisions intended to assure that the royal government would not lose control. a wide constitutional gulf separated the cabinet from the parliament. the cabinet was to exercise the monarch's powers, including the initiation of all government policy and the invocation of emergency decrees. cooperation between officials and legislators, integral to classical parliamentary systems, was discouraged. legislators were prohibited from holding ministerial or other executive positions. the cabinet was assured control over the composition of the meshrano jirgah, the parliament's upper house.