Constitution of Pakistan at Work

Abstract

On the 8th of June 1963, Pakistan celebrated the first anniversary of its second Constitution. In this essay an effort will be made to appraise the working of the Constitution in its first year and to discern certain of the basic trends which seem to be emerging. The Constitution of Pakistan was promulgated by President Ayub Khan on March 1, 1962 in fulfillment of the promise which he made at the time of the military take-over.1 It provides for a presidential system of government, with extensive powers for the head of the government. The President is assisted by a Council of Ministers who can attend the legislature and participate in its discussions but who do not have any voting rights.2 The Ministers are thus responsible to the President and not to the legislature. The President is to be elected for a period of five years by the electoral college consisting of the elected members of Basic Democracies. The Constitution nominally limits the power of the President by granting the federal legislature powers of impeachment on the grounds of gross misconduct or wilful violation of the Constitution, and physical or mental incapacity. Furthermore, when a resolution for the removal of the President is under consideration, the legislature cannot be dissolved. The effectiveness of this procedure, however, has been practically nullified by a companion provision of the Constitution. If less than half of the total members vote in favor of the resolution, the signatories of the original notice, who must be at least one-third of the members of the Assembly, shall cease to be members of the Assembly.3 The Constitution, imperfect as it may be from the liberal point of view, is better than government based on martial law. While it reflects the distrust with which President Ayub views politicians, political parties and even public opinion, the National Assembly was given the right to reconsider the ban imposed on political parties since 1958, and, if they should so decide, frame rules under which parties would once again be permitted to operate. President Ayub Khan, in inaugurating the Constitution, expressed in no uncertain terms his opposition to political parties and a parliamentary executive, as well as his expectation that the National