BOOK REVIEW of Pakistan political and Constitutional Dilemmas

Book Review”

Title: Pakistan political and Constitutional Dilemmas
Author: Kamal Azfar
Publisher: Pakistan chowk Karachi
Year of
Publication: 1987
Edition: First Edition
Pages: 163
Price: 125



This book Pakistan political and Constitutional Dilemmas by Kamal Azfar is published by Pakistan chowk Karachi, in 1987. This book covers the entire political and Constitutional Dilemmas of the Constitutions of Pakistan. Six decades ago the state of Pakistan was created; it has yet to become a nation. In this process of statehood to nationhood the people and government of Pakistan have to resolve several painful constitutional and political Dilemmas.

Mr. Kamal Azfar, currently a senior Advocate practicing in the Supreme Court of Pakistan graduated in Philosophy Politics and Economics from Balliol College Oxford and is a Barrister-at-Law from the Inner Temple. He has been a Senator and a Provincial Minister for Finance Planning and Development in Sind. Mr. Azfar has represented Pakistan in many international Forums notably as Pakistan’s representative at the Harvard International seminar in 1969 and to the conference of heads of government organized by the Club of Tome in Salzburg in 1975. Mr Afzal was associated as a Research Assistant with Nobel Prize, Winner gunaar myrdal in his magnumopus “Asian Drama”. Mr Azfar has continued as interest in research and writing. He is the author of a boor “Pakistan Odyssey” and of numerous articles. He was founder member and Secretary of the Principal Committee and is currently the Secretary of the Central Committee if the National People’s Party.
In this book the author deals with Pakistan’s dilemmas during its evolution as a nation. The most important of these are the role of the army in the stage, the relationship of religion to politics and the centrifugal and centripetal forces impeding the solution of the problems of provincial autonomy. These daimyos are in tern inter related with the combination of the mula and the man on horseback at one end of the spectrum and separatism bordering upon succession at the other end of the pole.
Pakistan has a rich constitutional history. All constitutional problems in Pakistan steam from the role of the army in the stage. The growing strength of the army and the weakening of political parties have made the army the prime political force in the country. It can be said half Pakistan as it was of bismarks, Prussia that it is a state within the army and not an army within the state. The struggle for power between the beruecratic millitary power elite and the feudal political elite summarizes the history of the state.
The first constitutional crises in the history of the country arouse with imposition of the martial law in Lahore in March in 1953 following disturbances arising out half a moment. Spare added by a religious elements to declare the “Ahmadi” sect who do not accept Prophet Muhammad PBUH as the last profit, minority. This crisis eventually resulted in the dissolution of the provincial government which enjoyed majority in the assembly.
This second crisis arouse at the time of dismissal of Khwaja Nizam-ud-din in April 1953, soon after the dissolution of the Punjab provincial government. Khwaja nizam ud din has his prime minister enjoyed the overwhelming majority in the parliament. This dissolution resulted in the third Constitutional crisis in the history of Pakistan. Maulvi tamizuddin, the Speaker of the Constituent Assembly filed a writ petition in the Sind High Court which was granted and the dissolution declared illegal. However, the Government filed an appeal. The appeal was allowed, not on merits, but in the technical ground that the writ could not be issued as the Governor-General has not given his consent to the amendments to the Government of India Act 1935 which permitted issuance of such writs. A reference was made to the Federal Court to overcome this crisis and on its advice a Constituent Assembly was convened. This Constituent Assembly produced the Constituent of 1956.
The Constituent of 1956 followed the pattern of the Government of India Act 1935. It provided for detention without adjudication, declaration of emergency and dismissal of Provincial Governments. Nominally the Constituent of 1956 was a Federal Constriction of Parliamentary type but in fact powers were concentrated in the Central Government. The basic defect in the Constitution was that the legislature had no power to vote on administrative expenses. Financial control over the administration is the only effective check which legislature exercises over the executive.
The fourth crisis came in 1958 when the Constitution of 1956 was abrogated by the Proclamation of Martial Law throughout the country. The Proclamation of Martial Law on October 1958 paved the way for the Constitution of 1962. The Constitution of 1962 was a imposition by the mandate of Martial Law.
Following the dismemberment of Pakistan in 1973 a Constitution was framed by consensus by the rump Parliament elected in 1970 but on July 5, 1977 Martial Law was imposed again. This was the next crisis but this time the Constitution was kept in abeyance and not abrogated. The last crisis has come with the Revival of the Constitution Order, 1985, when the Constitution was amended by the Chief Martial Law Administrator. Under the Referendum of 1984 General Zia Ul Haq got himself elected as president for five years in a manner contrary to the Constitution of 1973.


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Nisar Khan Kakar