The Constitutional Experiment in Pakistan

Abstract

If Mohammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan, or his principal lieutenant, Liaquat Ali Khan, were alive today, parliamentary democracy might well be functioning in Pakistan as it is in India under the leadership of Jawaharlal Nehru. The importance of a dominant personality to the sustenance and survival of parliamentary government in this part of the world during its early years cannot be denied. However paradoxical, the parliamentary system has been greatly abetted by the presence of a strong, charismatic leader dedicated to its support. In the absence of such a leader in Pakistan, parliamentarianism failed to take root. Its failure in such countries as Egypt, Iraq. Indonesia, Burmna and Nepal is related in some measure to a similar problem. Two or three instances indicating how the Pakistan parliamentary system functioned in actual practice might be given here. In April 1953, the Governor General dismissed the Prime Minister, even though at that time the latter commanded an absolute majority in Parliament, and replaced him with a person who had been out of the country for nearly five years. Those members of Parliament who had previously supported the dismissed Prime Minister transferred their loyalty to his successor within two days. In 1955 when the provinces of West Pakistan were merged into a single unit, the Governor General nominated as Chief Minister of the integrated province, a political leader who was unwilling to join the party that commanded an overwhelming majority in the Provincial Assembly. Later, when the majority party refused to elect this man as its leader, the Governor of the province, obviously under instructions from the Central Government, helped him in forming a new political party, which was then joined by nearly half the members of the Assembly. In March 1956, the Ministry in power in East Pakistan failed to obtain the approval of the Assembly for its b budget. Thereupon the Central Government intervened, suspended the Ministry and thus enabled the ProvinClial Governor to certify the budget. After some time the suspended Ministry was reinstated, even though it was quite obvious that its strength in the Assembly had not increased in the least during the intervening period. In those circumstances it was quite natural that most of the time and energies of the Ministers were expended in finding means to maintain themselves in power while the members of the Central and Provincial Assemblies were frequently engaged in changing their party loyalties with a view to securing the best possible price for their support. It will be recalled that between 1953 and 1958 there were six Prime Ministers at the Center alone, and shortly before martial law was proclaimed in Pakistan, every