PAK301_Lecture18

0:10 assalamu alaykum lecture number 18 of Pakistan studies the topic is Constitution making 1947 to 1956 in this lecture we'll discuss these stages of constitution making during 47 to 56 Constitution is a basic document which sets out the framework for governance and exercise of power it defines the powers of the

0:55 institutions and sets out the relationship that exists between different state institution it also describes the powers within which these institutions have to work and what would be the nature of relationship of the individual with the state at the time of establishment of Pakistan an in Constitution was introduced in Pakistan we have discussed that constitution in our previous lecture which was a modified version of the government

1:45 of India act 1935 the task of making of the Constitution was assigned to the constituent assembly of Pakistan that came into existence in August 1947 we have discussed how that constituent assembly came into existence therefore we don't have to go back into that detail you would also recall that in lecture number 17 we discussed in some

2:30 detail the issues that the constituent assembly had to deal with while framing the Constitution we talked about six issues in lecture number 17 which were the major issues that the assembly had to resolve before The Constitution was framed and uh uh here we will not get into the details of those issues but we'll see that what were the stages or what were the steps that were taken for framing the

3:16 constitution of Pakistan the whole process of constitution making started with the passing of the objectives resolution we have discussed in detail the basic principles of the objectives resolution in lecture 16 we described there that the objectives resolution which was passed in March 1949 out outlines the basic

4:02 principles and foundation of the Constitution the principles that had to be kept in Mind by the constituent assembly of Pakistan while framing the constitution in a way the objectives resolution was not only identifying the objective the goal they wanted to achieve it was also setting out the priorities that had to be pursued and we have discussed all these in lecture number

4:50 16 once the objectives resolution was passed by the constituent assembly then steps had to be be taken for the formulation of the Constitution and the first important step after the passing of the objectives resolution was to set up the basic principles committee a committee comprising the members of the constituent assembly of Pakistan the strength of the basic principles committee was fixed as 24 that means that there were 24

5:38 members but the committee had the right to coopt more members if it needed but at least there were 24 members there were uh Muslim members there were non-muslim members and also women were member of the basic principles Comm committee along with basic principal committee some subcommittees were set up primarily to assist the basic principles committee these subcommittees were assigned some specific task to deal with some specific

6:23 issue and I can give you example that one such committee dealt with the issue of federalism what kind of federal model Pakistan was to adopt and this subcommittee looked into uh this matter and then report back to the basic principles committee there were other subcommittees like committee on Judiciary to look into the judicial setup that was to be established in Pakistan another subcommittee on fundamental rights the civil and political rights that were to be given to the citizens of

7:10 Pakistan and there was also a committee on the minorities the non-muslims who were also citizens of Pakistan so in this way several subcommittees uh were set up I have given you just few examples there were more more uh subcommittee uh committees than I have uh mentioned so the basic principles committee and the subcommittees that were set up deliberated on different aspects of constitution making and then they prepared a report that is called the basic

7:56 principles committee first report we are calling it first report because the basic principles committee issued more than one reports therefore we uh call it first report second report and so on so that we can identify different efforts made by the basic principles committee so the first report was presented to the constituent assembly of Pakistan in 1950 and this report outlined certain Broad and key

8:42 principles it was not framing a constitution it was identifying certain broad principles that were to serve as the basis and Foundation of the Constitution let me mention some of the recommendations which the basic principal committee's first report of 1950 made so that you have an idea about the kind of ideas and also a kind of system they wanted to introduce in

9:28 Pakistan first important recommendation by the basic principles committee report was that the objectives resolution of 1949 will be included in the constitution of Pakistan as the directive principles of policy as guidelines for policym another recommendation was that the head of state who was to be named as the president head of state was to be

10:14 elected by The Joint session of the parliament for 5 years and a person could hold presidential office only for 5 years the president was given some discretionary Powers the powers he could use in his discretion and certain other categories of power were recommended to be assigned to the president although the authority was to be exercised uh by the prime minister so far as legislation is

11:03 concerned the first report had recommended that there will be two houses the upper house and the lower house and the principle recommended here for the composition of the two houses was that in the Upper House all provincial units would have equal representation and in the case of the lower house representation was to be given on the basis of population which

11:51 means if a province has more power it will have more representation and in this case East Eastern Pakistan had more population naturally it was to have more representation in the lower house so far as Powers was concerned Powers were equally divided between the two houses that is both houses were to have same kind of powers and the cabinet which means the Minister and the cabinet were responsible to an answerable

12:38 to the both houses of Parliament in this way it tried to present certain basic principles however this report was silent on the issue of national language what would be the national language of Pakistan the report was silent and it didn't make any kind of recommendation when this report was presented to the constituent assembly in 1950 there was

13:24 criticism in the house and outside of the house one basic criticism was on the issue of representation and you would recall that in our lecture on constitutional problems we discussed representation as one of the important issues that the constituent assembly had to deal with and here we see that on the question of representation there was a criticism that if you provide equal

14:11 representation to all units of the Federation then western part of Pakistan would have more representation because there were more units in the western part and there was only one unit in what was then East Bengal so the the feeling was that in this way Western Pakistan gets more representation then there were couple of other related issues that were raised in the constituent assembly with reference to the first report for example

14:59 the issue was equal Powers equal powers to both houses the general principle is that lower house has more powers and the upper house has less Powers that's the standard principle in parliamentary system of government but here both houses had equal power so this was also criticized and then the question of national language that it should have said something on the national language now keeping in view this criticism it was decided that the basic principles committee will review the

15:46 report in the light of comments criticism points made in the constituent assembly the basic principal committee again deliberated on the issue so that the points raised in the constituent assembly and outside of the constituent assembly are Incorporated and the report is made more acceptable to the representatives so it reviewed the recommendations and brought back the the revised or the second

16:32 report in 1952 the second report or the revised report generally followed the same principles but it tried to accommodate the criticism that was made on the first report and and I can just give you one or two examples to illustrate my point that is what kind of changes it made in the first report one issue was question of

17:17 representation how should different provinces of Pakistan one province in the Eastern wing and more than one Province and administrative units in the western part should be provided representation so the second report followed the principle of equal representation to both wings of Pakistan that is the Eastern wing and all the provinces and administrative units of western side will have equal representation for example the recommendation was that there will be in the upper house 60

18:06 members from Eastern wing and 60 from the Western Wing or western part and then these 60 members allocated to Western part were further divided amongst different provinces in the western part and administrative units the same principle applied to lower house 200 seats were to be given to the eastern part and 200 to the western part and then again the Western seats would be further

18:52 divided amongst various provinces and also um different administrative units in the western part of Pakistan more power was to be given to the lower house that is the house which represents the people that was given more power more um uh responsibility it also emphasized that is the second report or the revised report emphasized that in Pakistan law making would be in accordance with the principles of

19:38 Islam this was in a way a reflection of the objectives resolution where sovereignity all over Universe had been assigned to Almighty Allah and it was to be exercised by the state of Pakistan through the representative of people within the limits prescribed by him that is Almighty Allah and that principle now reflects here that the laws would be made in accordance with the uh principles of Islam and there cannot be

20:23 a law that violates the principles and teachings of Islam in order to facilitated that it was also recommended that an Advisory Board of five AAS should be constituted who would advise on this matter that is lawmaking in accordance with the principles and teachings of Islam second report was also silent on national language however it definitely accommodated some of the

21:08 demands especially for representation the fear that perhaps East Pakistan would be dominated by West Pakistan that fear was taken care of by providing equal representation to both wings of Pakistan however there was criticism by some sections and that was why equal representation in the case of first report some were saying inequality now somewh saying why equality has been created so this kind of uh debate um was uh going on but it

21:55 the second report definitely accommodat ated some of the complaints that were brought forward in the case of the first report while the report was being discussed there was a political crisis in in Pakistan prime minister nazmudin bogra was removed uh from uh his office and uh this kind of Crisis diverted attention and then new prime minister came in and he was Muhammad Ali bogra in

22:45 1953 the new prime minister took up the matter where it was left that is the second report and commentaries on the second report proposals for the Improvement of the second reports that were made in the constituent assembly and outside of the constituent assembly so he and his team and people in the basic principles committee report deliberated on all these issues and in 1953 October 1953 another report was brought out you can call it a third report basic

23:32 principles commit third report but generally in Pakistani history this is called the Muhammad Ali formula because Muhammad Ali bogra was the Prime Minister and it was under his leadership that a new set of proposal was prepared which he presented to the constituent assembly and therefore generally it is described as the Muhammad Ali formula uh for the Constitution making this formula presented in October 1953

24:18 revised the original proposals in the light of the comments and and criticism and it adopted a novel procedure for providing representation to different units of Pakistan it decided that in the case of the Upper House there will be equal representation to all the units of Pakistan and for this purpose Pakistan was divided into five

25:06 units one unit was East Pakistan or east Bengal and four units were in the western Pakistan and each unit was given equal representation that means that in the Upper House 10 members would be from the eastern part because each unit was to send 10 members and since four units were accepted in western part 40 members were to come from these four

25:52 units in the lower house more representation was given to the Eastern Pakistan or east Bengal because that had more population than the western part so this Muhammad Ali formula provided that from Eastern part there will be 165 members and from the western part the strength of the members would be 135 135 and this was the application of principle of

26:39 representation on the basis of population so in this case the standard principle of federalism was followed that is in the Upper House the units of federation are given equal representation in the lower house the units are represented on the basis of population so East Pakistan was sending 1065 and Western Pakistan was sending 135 members and the membership of western part was further divided

27:28 amongst the units of western part however there is a unique feature here although the standard principle of federalism has been followed Upper House equal representation to units and lowerhouse population but whenever the parliament met in a joint session there was parity or equality between the two wings of Pakistan let me explain this in the case of Eastern Pakistan or east

28:14 Bengal it had 10 members in the upper house and 165 in the lower house the total from Eastern Bengal or Eastern Pakistan comes to 175 in case of the western part there were four units each unit sending 10 members to the upper house which means 40 members in the lower house Western Pakistan was to send 135 members so 40 plus 135 it comes to

29:00 175 so it's a principle of equality and principle of parity when the parliament was to meet in a joint session there was another provision provided in this uh formula uh was although decisions were to be made by majority of vote but this decision could not be effective unless at least 30% members from both sides or both units or both zones vote for it that is at least 30% members from

29:48 Eastern part of Pakistan and 30% members from the western part of Pakistan should be included in the required majority Authority for law making in this way this proposal incorporates the principle of parity with interdependence parity in the sense that in a joint session both the wings of Pakistan have equal representation 175 175 so it's it in a joint session it is equality interdependence that is at least 30%

30:35 members from both the wings of Pakistan must be included in the required majority so in other words One Wing could not get away with what it wanted to do it had to seek the support of the other side so parity and interdependence were built into the system through this proposal this proposal provided for equal powers to both houses that both will have uh equal powers and they could also take up issues in in joint

31:21 session this proposal parity Plus interdependence was received with greater welcome than the previous reports however there was some criticism there were certain points uh mentioned here by the members one issue mentioned here was that it was providing for a reason reasonably complex process you divide western part into four units Eastern part one unit then the

32:08 allocation of seats that is to be done parity at the Joint session level and then 30% Clause so some people were saying some newspapers were writing articles that it becomes a complicated process but generally this was accepted although this kind of criticism Was Heard here and there in the Parliament and outside the parliament another issue that uh attracted some criticism was the issue of equal powers that this proposal called muhammadali formula or

32:55 the 1953 constitutional proposals were providing for equal powers to both houses and some people were saying that since the lower house represents the people therefore lower house has to have more Powers but in this proposal both houses the upper house and the lower house were to be given equal Powers another significant development during this period that

33:40 facilitated Constitution making was the settlement of the language issue while discussing the problems of constitution making we have discussed the debate on the national language issue in Pakistan during this period that is the period we are discussing in 1954 the constituent assembly of Pakistan decided that Bengali and Udu would be the two national languages of

34:25 Pakistan this decision in 1954 facilitated the Constitution making process because acceptance of two national languages helped to diffuse controversies that had emerged on Constitution making in this way this important issue was amicably settled to the satisfaction of most political leaders and political parties after this the Constitution constituent

35:14 assembly devoted itself to making of the Constitution and the drafting of the Constitution started that is by the summer of 1954 all basic principles had been agreed to by the constituent assembly and drafting had started and in fact by October 1954 especially by mid October 1954 good part of of the Constitution had been drafted by the

36:01 committee or group of people legal experts constitutional experts to draft the Constitution and it was assumed that very shortly the draft Constitution would be presented to the constituent assembly constituent assembly would Del at on it discuss on discuss the draft and make changes if the members want to and ultimately the Constitution would be approved that was the situation in October 1954 and the expectation was

36:46 that very soon in a couple of months time Pakistan will have its own Constitution however a sudden development in the same month October 1954 created a situation that delayed Constitution making and that development was that on 24th

37:31 October 1954 governor general gulam Muhammad decided to dissolve the constituent assembly of Pakistan exercising his powers as the governor Journal he argued that the constituent assembly of Pakistan had been dealing with the making of the Constitution for such a long time that is the constituent assembly came into existence in August 1947 and this was October

38:21 1954 and his argument was that this constituent assembly hasn't been able to frame a constitution it has virtually made it into a Perpetual body therefore he could exercise his powers to dissolve the constituent assembly that means the whole effort to frame a constitution came to a stand still dissolution of the constituent assembly also

39:06 meant that the government that is the government of prime minister Muhammad Ali bogra came to an end but the governor general asked him to set up a new new government which included some old ministers and some were new ministers and in this way Constitution making was delayed one result of this dissolution of the constituent assembly of Pakistan by the governor general uh

39:55 was that this matter was taken to the superior Judiciary for adjudication the president of the constituent assembly at that time mvi tamen he moved the case first to send Chief Court and then to the Federal Court of uh Pakistan and this is known as the tamin case if you read books articles this 1954 case on the dissolution of the

40:42 constituent assembly that went to the superior Judiciary is often described as the muli tamin case this legal and constitutional battle in the syn chief court and then in the federal court went on for several months and the federal court through various judgments which it gave from time to time and also through its advisory opinions which the federal court gave to the governor general during the same

41:27 period the ultimate uh decision uh or the resolution of the issue was that the governor general was able to get away with the dissolution of the constituent assembly of Pakistan but the federal court directed that new constituent assembly will have to to be elected governor general could not nominate anybody but it had to be elected therefore keeping in view the the Judgment of this federal court and the advisory opinion of the federal

42:13 court the government of Pakistan decided to hold new elections for the second constituent assembly these election were indirect they were not directly elected but indirect elections to the second constituent assembly were held in June and July 1954 1955 to be more precise the elections to the constituent assembly second constituent assembly were held in June and July 1955 and it

43:01 began its session that is the second constituent assembly started its session in July 1955 in the case of second constituent assembly two things were different from the first constituent assembly in the first constituent assembly the Muslim League was the majority party in the second constituent assembly no political party had an absolute majority the Muslim League was the single largest party but not a

43:49 majority this was a change in the case of the second constituent assembly the membership was 80 40 from East Pakistan 40 from the Western Pakistan so in a way it was principle of equality and parity the second constituent assembly took upon itself the task of framing the constitution of Pakistan and in order to deal with this issue the second constituent assembly

44:34 did not start from the beginning it could make use of all the work done by the earlier constituent assembly it was in a way building on what the first constituent assembly had done the first important step taken by the second constituent assembly of Pakistan was what is known as the integration of the province of West Pakistan this is also described as the one unit scheme for Western

45:21 Pakistan in the case of West Pakistan there were three provinces bistan was not a full Province but a different administrative unit other than these four major administrative units they were princely States what was done in 1955 was that all these administrative units in the western part of Pakistan were integrated into what was known as the province of

46:07 West Pakistan and smaller Province and smaller administrative units were abolished for example the province of Punjab Sy Frontier and beluchistan princely States they lost their separate and autonomous status they were integrated into one whole called West Pakistan so this is what is the one unit scheme for West Pakistan and because of this now there were two provinces of Pakistan East Pakistan one

46:54 Province West Pakistan second Province and in this way the issue of representation was resolved although in the smaller provinces or administrative units of West Pakistan there was criticism of setting up this integrated province of West Pakistan nevertheless this integration of Western Pakistan helped the framing of the Constitution after that the constituent

47:40 assembly began to deal with the Constitution it discussed the Constitution and the draft of the Constitution was released for the constituent assembly and for public at l LGE on 8th January 1956 that is the draft text of the Constitution this text was discussed in the constituent assembly outside the constituent assembly and then the constituent assembly approved the constitution on 29th February 1956

48:28 the next stage in the making of the Constitution was the approval of the Constitution by the governor general of Pakistan that is his signatures were required and at that time iscandar Mah was the governor general of Pakistan and on March 2nd 1956 he signed the Constitution that has been approved by the constituent assembly in this way it became the constitution of Pakistan this constitution was

49:14 enforced on 23rd March 1956 this replaced the the interim Constitution that was introduced in Pakistan in August 1947 in this way the long drawn effort to frame the constitution of Pakistan was successful in giving this country a constitution of its own which became operative on 23rd March

50:02 1956 this brings an end to our discussion of constitution making until the next lecture