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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Pakistan
Index
The path to the current constitution and government was
often
tortuous and accompanied by successive upheavals in the
nation's
political life. The years between 1947 and 1958 were
marked by
political chaos moderated by the administrative power and
acumen
of the CSP. They were also years in which the armed
forces,
especially the army, expanded its mission and assumed
political
influence alongside the CSP. Initially, the country was
governed
by a Constituent Assembly
(see Independent Pakistan
, ch.
1). The
Constituent Assembly had dual functions: to draft a
constitution
and to enact legislation until the constitution came into
effect.
It was nine years before Pakistan adopted its first
constitution
in 1956. Major conflicts in the Constituent Assembly
included the
issues of representation to be given to major regional
groups
(particularly the East Wing) and religious controversy
over what
an Islamic state should be.
The first major step in framing a constitution was the
passage by the Constituent Assembly of the Objectives
Resolution
of March 1949, which defined the basic principles of the
new
state. It provided that Pakistan would be a state "wherein
the
principles of democracy, freedom, equality, tolerance and
social
justice, as enunciated by Islam, shall be fully observed;
wherein
the Muslims shall be enabled to order their lives in the
individual and collective spheres in accordance with the
teachings and requirements of Islam as set out in the Holy
Quran
and Sunna; [and] wherein adequate provision shall be made
for the
minorities freely to progress and practice their religions
and
develop their cultures." Seven years of debate, however,
failed
to produce agreement on fundamental issues such as
regional
representation or the structure of a constitution. This
impasse
prompted Governor General Ghulam Mohammad to dismiss the
Constituent Assembly in 1954. The Supreme Court of
Pakistan
upheld the action of the governor general, arguing that he
had
the power to disband the Constituent Assembly and veto
legislation it passed. This preeminence of the governor
general
over the legislature has been referred to as the viceregal
tradition in Pakistan's politics.
The revived Constituent Assembly promulgated Pakistan's
first
indigenous constitution in 1956 and reconstituted itself
as the
national legislature--the Legislative Assembly--under the
constitution it adopted. Pakistan became an Islamic
republic. The
governor general was replaced by a president, but despite
efforts
to create regional parity between the East Wing and the
West
Wing, the regional tensions remained. Continuing regional
rivalry, ethnic dissension, religious debate, and the
weakening
power of the Muslim League--the national party that
spearheaded
the country's founding--exacerbated political instability
and
eventually led President Iskander Mirza to disband the
Legislative Assembly on October 7, 1958, and declare
martial law.
General Mohammad Ayub Khan, Pakistan's first indigenous
army
commander in chief, assisted Mirza in abrogating the
constitution
of 1956 and removing the politicians he believed were
bringing
Pakistan to the point of collapse. Ayub Khan, as Mirza's
chief
martial law administrator, then staged another coup also
in
October 1958, forced Mirza out of power, and assumed the
presidency, to the relief of large segments of the
population
tired of the politicians' continued machinations.
Data as of April 1994
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