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EDITORIAL: The Constitution of Pakistan is widely considered a living and breathing document. Given that Pakistan’s first two constitutions were butchered by power-hungry adventurists much before these achieved puberty, it is no less than a miracle that the third one that came into existence 50 years ago has survived honourably and is growing to remain in touch with ground realities and emerging challenges. The draft of the third constitution was introduced to the National Assembly by the then law minister Abdul Hafeez Pirzada on December 31, 1972.

Debate and discussion on it commenced on February 17, 1973 and continued for 34 sittings. The 1973 constitution was passed on April 10, 1973, authenticated by the then president, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, and enforced with effect from August 14, 1973 at a power-show hosted by the then Balochistan Governor Sardar Akbar Bugti in Quetta. The new constitution replaced the presidential form of government by parliamentary form in line with Westminster system, turned Pakistan into a federation and safeguarded fundamental rights of people.

Keeping in view the fact that the first constitution (1956) had extensively borrowed the tenets of statecraft from the colonial system in which bureaucracy ruled the roost, the 1973 constitution ensured strict adherence to the democratic principle of separation of powers. From the failure of the second constitution (1962) the framers of the third social, political and economic charter had learnt that the power of the state should be widely dispersed as against the second or ‘Ayubian’ constitution that stipulated a presidential form of government.

How the absolute ruler of that time Field Marshal Mohammad Ayub Khan was Prof Karl Von Vorys’ Political Development in Pakistan (an analysis that focuses on the practical limitations of that Ayub’s ability to mobilise mass backing even when he is supported by a powerful army) merits a mention.

While framing the new constitution Ayub said: “… the situation is not irremediable if tackled with resolution and courage, and that has to be provided by top leadership – ME.” He concluded his address to the nation, introducing the constitution with words: “Now, therefore, I, Field Marshal Mohammad Ayub Khan, do hereby enact this constitution”. And in order to perpetuate his hold on national power he introduced a system that he named Basic Democracy.

In sum, the framers of the 1973 constitution saw to it that their product should explicitly avoid all what caused the failure of two earlier versions. It turned Pakistan into a parliamentary democracy by shifting all the real powers from the president to the parliament headed by the elected prime minister.

The sad saga of breakup of Pakistan in 1971 was a lesson that obliged the framers to conclude that Pakistan should be a federal parliamentary democracy, with each unit of the country having adequate constitutional guarantees and distribution of legislative powers – a right further strengthened by the 18th Amendment that sought to undo the mutilation of the constitution through a plethora of amendments made by the military despots that usurped power in 1977 and 1999 and successfully secured validation of their acts from the apex court that even allowed a military ruler to amend the constitution at will.

The 1973 constitution also introduced bicameralism so that the newly-introduced Senate acts as saucer to cool down the hotly legislated enactments by the National Assembly. But these 50 years were not an absolutely unchallenged ride – there were assaults on its democratic ambience during the rule of Gen Zia and Gen Musharraf.

But as we take pride in the survival of the 1973 constitution, we are also concerned how the very segments that constitute the National Assembly are turning to the street to sell their goods than to be in the house and make it the ultimate source of law-making. The danger to the elected democracy is no more from outside, but from within. A weak parliament means a weak democracy, and it risks losing its claim to be the ultimate reservoir of the nation’s right of self-governance.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023

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