Chapter 2

POST PARTITION
FIRST CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY OF
PAKISTAN
FIRST CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY
OF PAKISTAN

Before partition on 11th August 1947 the First Constituent Assembly

comprising 79 members was formed with Quaid-e-Azam as its Chairman. It
assigned a dual responsibility, to work as a federal legislature and to prepare
the constitution of Pakistan. Due to the number of difficulties that arose
during the initial stage of the establishment of Pakistan, the process of
constitution making remain slow. Death of the father of the nation together
caused to jeopardize the process. The first constituent Assembly of Pakistan
was dissolved in 1954 by Malik Ghulam Mohammad the third governor
general of Pakistan.
OBJECTIVE RESOLUTION 1949
OBJECTIVE RESOLUTION 1949
Objective Resolution was presented in the Constituent Assembly by Liaquat
Ali Khan on. It was passed by the Assembly on March 12, 1949 Following
were the main features of the Objectives Resolution:

Important provision;
(1) Sovereignty over the entire universe belongs to God Almighty alone.
(2) the state shall exercise its power and authority through the elected
representatives of the people.
(3) The principles of democracy, freedom, equality, tolerance and social justice as
enunciated by Islam shall be fully observed.
(4) Muslim shall be enable to order their lives in accordance with the teaching of
Islam.
(5) Minorities can freely profess and practice their religion.
(6) Adequate provisions shall be made to safeguard the legitimate right of the
minorities and backward and depressed classes.
(7) Independence of judiciary shall be fully secured.
(8) Fundamental human rights shall be provided.
IMPORTANCE OF OBJECTIVE
RESOLUTION 1949
IMPORTANCE OF OBJECTIVE
RESOLUTION 1949
While introducing the resolution in the constituent assembly, Liaquat Ali Khan
said; “I consider this to be a most
important occasion in the life of
this country next in importance
only to the achievement of
independence”
(1) It was the first major step towards the constitution making and most
import document in the constitutional history of Pakistan.
(2) In Objective Resolution the Islamic and ideological character of the newly
established state was preserved.
(3) It guaranteed to protect the right of minorities, fundamental human rights
and independence of judiciary.
(4) It contained fundamental principal on which the future constitution of
Pakistan was to be based.
(5) Later it was made the part off all the three constitutions of Pakistan.
FIRST CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY OF
PAKISTAN DISSOLVE
FIRST CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY OF
PAKISTAN DISSOLVE
On 11th August 1947 the First Constituent Assembly comprising 79 members
was formed with Quaid-e-Azam as its Chairman. It assigned a dual
responsibility, to work as a federal legislature and to prepare the constitution
of Pakistan. The constituent Assembly was dissolved by Malik Ghulam
Mohamed the third governor general of Pakistan on 24th October 1954.
Important provision;
(1) The Constituent Assembly passed an amendment bill in the Act of 1935 to
curtail the powers of Governor General. The constituent Assembly also
repealed PRODA.
(2) Malik Ghulam Mohamed was in opinion that, the work of the Constituent
Assembly was far from satisfactory. The Constituent Assembly was established
in 1947 for the constitution making but it was failed to accomplish its task even
after the efforts of seven years.
(3) Members of the constituent assembly elected before partition in the
elections of 1945-46 therefore it lost the representative character.
ONE UNIT
ONE UNIT

On September 30, 1955, the Second Constituent Assembly under Governor

General Iskander Mirza passed the bill merging all four provinces and Tribal
Areas of West Pakistan into a single province, with Lahore as its provincial
capital. Dr. Khan Sahib was appointed as the first Chief Minister of the One
Unit, while Mushtaq Ahmad Gurmani was appointed as the first Governor of
West Pakistan. One Unit continued until General Yahya Khan dissolved it
on July 1, 1970.
EARLY PROBLEMS FACED BY
PAKISTAN
EARLY PROBLEMS FACED BY
PAKISTAN
Pakistan came into existence on 14th August 1947. Soon after its
establishment Pakistan faced number of problems. Most of these problems
were deliberately created by India itself so that Pakistan would not maintain its
independent status and merged with India.
(1) Accession of the princely states;
At the time of partition there were 462 princely states in India. By 15th august
most of these states announced their accession to either India or Pakistan
except Kashmir Hyderabad and Junagadh that latter caused dispute between
India and Pakistan.
Kashmir: Sharing 1/3 of its boundary with Pakistan it was the largest state of
India with 77.11% Muslim population. Knowing the intention of Muslims who
wanted to join Pakistan Hindu ruler of Kashmir Maharaja Hari Singh started
massacre of the Kashmiri Muslims. Brutal campaign of Maharaja caused to
intensify the freedom Movement in Kashmir. Maharaja, who was unable to
control the situation, handed over the state to India in October 26, 1947.
EARLY PROBLEMS FACED BY
PAKISTAN
In 1948 undeclared war began between India. Kashmiri freedom fighters with
the help of volunteers from the tribal area of Pakistan liberated 1/3 of Kashmir
from India. In 1948 UNO passed a resolution asking both India and Pakistan to
hold plebiscite in the valley, it also arranged in 1949 a cease-fire and a cease-
fire line cutting across the valley dividing it between India and Pakistan. After
having number of declared and undeclared wars on Kashmir the Issue is still
unresolved.
Hyderabad: was the richest Hindu majority states, surrounded by the Indian
territory It's Muslim ruler (Nizam) wanted to maintain independent status for
his state but as being Muslim he had desire to accede with Pakistan if ever
need arose. Mount batten the put pressure on Nizam to accede with India but
Nizam refused to do so. On September 13, 1948 just two days after the death
of Quaid-e-Azam Indian forces occupied Hyderabad militarily. Pakistan
submitted a complaint in UNO against the illegal action of India, which is still
pending.
EARLY PROBLEMS FACED BY
PAKISTAN
Junagadh: was a small Hindu majority state situated 300 miles down to the
coast of Karachi, at the Indian coast of Kathiawar. After independence Muslim
ruler of Junagadh requested Quaid-e-Azam to accede his state with Pakistan
was accepted formally. On 9th November 1947 the Indian army occupied the
state militarily.
(2) Refugees and accommodation problem;
Communal violence that had already started reached to its height after the
announcement of Radcliff Award on 16th August 1947. Sikhs and Hindu armed with
deadly weapons slaughter the man woman and even the small children. Due to the
communal violence largest migration of the modern world history took place between
India and Pakistan. It was estimated that only West Pakistan received 5.5
million .refugees. The arrival of refugees caused economic and administrative problems
for Pakistan as it did not have sufficient resources to provide food, shelter and medical
aid to the growing number of refugees. Hindu and Sikhs who left Pakistan were skilled
manpower whereas the majority of the refugees that arrived in Pakistan were peasant
and unskilled and they were inexperienced for the jobs that were waiting for them.
EARLY PROBLEMS FACED BY
PAKISTAN
(3) Canal water dispute;
It had its origin in Radcliff Award which drew the boundary line between India
and Pakistan in way that it cut across the rivers and canal making India the
upper beneficiary and Pakistan the lower beneficiary. It also handed over two
important Head Works over river Ravi (Madhupure Head Works) and Sutlej
(Ferozpure Head Works) to India. Which were used to control the flow and
distribution of water in the area that included in Pakistan. In March 1948 India
stopped the flow of water in river Ravi and Sutlej. Which caused drought and
food shortage in Pakistan. Dispute was finally settled when an agreement
called Indus Basin Treaty was signed between India and Pakistan in 1960.
EARLY PROBLEMS FACED BY
PAKISTAN
(4) Issue of national language;
Immediately after the establishment of Pakistan language controversy was
started between East and West Pakistan, when the members of the Constituent
Assembly belonged to East Pakistan demanded that instead of Urdu, Bengali
should be made national language of Pakistan. In March 1948 while addressing
at Dhaka, Quaid-e-Azam declared, "Urdu and Urdu alone would be the national
language of Pakistan". Advice of Quaid-e-Azam caused to settle the issue
temporarily but the issue exploded latter after the death of Quaid-e-Azam.
Though the constitution of 1965 declared both Urdu and Bengali to be the
national languages of Pakistan, but by 1956 the issue caused a lot of harm to
national integrity that was never recovered.
EARLY PROBLEMS FACED BY
PAKISTAN
(5) Division of assets;
Military Assets: It was announced on July 1, 1947 that Indian army would
also be divided in ratio of 65 to 35 in India's favor. It was with reference of the
communal balance present in the British Indian Army. Whatever Pakistan
received was nothing but scrap and out of order machines, broken weapons,
unserviceable artillery and aircraft.
Division of financial assets: At the time of division there was cash balance
of 4 billion rupees in the Reserve Bank of India which was to be divided
between India and Pakistan in the ratio of 17 to India and 5 to Pakistan.
Pakistan was to receive 750 million rupees, which was initially delayed by the
Indian Government. After the protest of Pakistan, India agreed to pay 200
million rupees. India stopped the rest of the amount by saying that Pakistan
could use it to buy arms. After the protest from Pakistan and the threat of
hunger strike by Gandhi, Nehru was forced to pay 500 million rupees. However
EARLY PROBLEMS FACED BY
PAKISTAN
(6) Issues of pakhtoonistan;
At the time of partition Afghan government refused to accept Durand Line as
an international boundary between Pakistan and Afghanistan. As the majority
people in Afghanistan and in North Western Province of Pakistan are having
same ethnic background (Pakhtoon) therefore The Afghan government claimed
on the greater part of NWFP to be the part of federation with Afghanistan
called Pakhtoonistan.

(7) Death of Quaid-e-azam;

Despite of all the problems, Pakistan continued to march under the dynamic
leadership of Quaid-e-Azam. Nobody can deny that in the early year
predominant leadership of Quaid-e-Azam was a source of strength for Pakistan.
Quaid-e-Azam died on 11th September 1948. After the death of Quaid-e-Azam
though there were great leaders too, but unfortunately none of them was of
the caliber of Quaid-e-Azam.
SALIENT FEATURES OF THE
CONSTITUTION OF 1973
SALIENT FEATURES OF THE
CONSTITUTION OF 1973
The present Constitution is the third constitution of the country which was
drafted and passed by the National Assembly of Pakistan on April 10, 1973. It
was authenticated by the president on April 12, 1973 and enforced on August
14, 1973. Following are the main characteristics of this constitution.

Salient feature of constitution:

The Constitution of 1973 is different from the earlier Constitution of 1956 and
1962. It has the following salient features.

(1) A written constitution:

The Constitution of 1973 is different from the earlier Constitution of 1956 and
1962.It has the following salient features.
SALIENT FEATURES OF THE
CONSTITUTION OF 1973
(2) Rigid constitution:
It is a rigid constitution. No Government can change it at will. It is not easy to
make amendments in it. Two-third majority of both the Houses is required for
this purpose.
(3) The objective resolution is the integral part:
The principles and provisions set out in the Objectives Resolution have been
made essential part of the constitution.
(4) Federal Form of Government:
t introduced a Federal system in the country. The federation of Pakistan
consists of a Central Government and four Provincial Governments.
(5) Parliamentary form of government:
The Constitution provides for Parliamentary form of Government both at the
center and in the provinces.
SALIENT FEATURES OF THE
CONSTITUTION OF 1973
(6) Bicameral Central Legislature:
The Constitution provides for the establishment of a bicameral legislature in
Pakistan. The Parliament consists of two Houses named Senate (Upper House)
and National Assembly (Lower House). The Senate which consists of 104
members with equal representation for all provinces, is elected indirectly for
the term of 6 years. The National Assembly consists of 342 members, with
proportional representation for all provinces. It is elected directly for a term of
5 years. (7) The President is the Head of the Federation:
The President must be a Muslim not less than 45 years of age, Elected
indirectly by members of Parliament for a term of five years. He is the
ceremonial head of country. The President could be removed by the resolution
of parliament with the support of66% of the total membership.
SALIENT FEATURES OF THE
CONSTITUTION OF 1973

(8) The Prime Minister is the Head of the Government:

Prime minister shall be the actual executive and legislative head of country.
An elected member of National Assembly who has the confidence of the
majority members in National Assembly shall be appointed as the Prime
Minister for the term of five years. Prime minister can be removed if lost
confidence of majority.
(9) Fundamental Rights:
The Constitution grants and protects the fundamental rights of the citizens of
Pakistan. They include the right to life, property, profession, liberty of thought
and expression, freedom of association, religion, equality of citizens etc. In
case of their violation, the affected person may go to the Courts for seeking
redress of his grievances.
SALIENT FEATURES OF THE
CONSTITUTION OF 1973
(10) Independence of Judiciary:
The Constitution also provides independence of the judiciary from the
Executive.
(11) Islam Character:
The 1973 Constitution is more Islamic as compare to its predecessors. For the
very first time it declared Islam as the state religion of Pakistan and also
provided the definition of Muslim, i.e. a person who believed on oneness of
God and finality of Hazrat Mohammad ‫ ﷺ‬is Muslim.
(12) Direct Method of Election:
The Constitution of 1973 gives a direct method of election. The members of
the National Assembly, the Provincial Assemblies are directly elected by the
people.
(13) National language:
It declared Urdu as the national language of Pakistan. However English has
been retained as the official language.
SALIENT FEATURES OF THE
CONSTITUTION OF 1973
(14) Single citizenship:
The Constitution of 1973 has established the principles of single citizenship.
According to this principle the rights and duties of the citizens are determined
by the Federal Constitution only. Thus the people throughout Pakistan are
citizens of Pakistan.
(15) referendum:
The Constitution of 1973 has authorized the President to hold Referendum on
any national issue. Similarly the Prime Minister can ask the President to hold
referendum on any important national issue.
conclusion:
The Constitution of 1973 has authorized the President to hold Referendum on
any national issue. Similarly the Prime Minister can ask the President to hold
referendum on any important national issue.