Constitutional History of Pakistan

CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF PAKISTAN

Course Description: Constitutions have come to be regarded as the collective consensus and ultimate reference point of a nation’s aspirations and ideals. They are looked upon as the primary custodians of individual and collective rights and the supreme arbiters in disputes between the organs of a State. They are the mirror to the ideological hopes of the past, the litmus test for the actuality of the present and the looking glass for the future. The alchemy of their creation and interpretation is suffused with politics, and the politics of a nation are greatly influenced by its Constitutional disputes. This course attempts to outline the history of constitutional development in Pakistan through a detailed analysis of the landmark cases that act as distinct milestones through this journey. We will look at length at not just the jurisprudence of the judgments but also the unique social and political environment, which influenced them and furthermore how these judgments in turn ended up influencing that environment.

A better appreciation of the complexity of this evolution can come through the development of a comparative perspective. Only when we look at other similar roads can we better discern whether ours was more crooked or less arduous and to this end, the precursor to this course i.e. Constitutional Law 1 (UK and US Constitutional Law) took a close look at two other systems of Government. The US system is important as it can arguably boast of the most sophisticated and well-developed constitutional discourse and one of the oldest constitutions. The British system is intriguing, as it successfully exists without the bells and whistles of a written constitution. What exists instead is a very different system of governmental checks and balances and hence its study provides an interesting counter-balance to the US system, which revolves around a written constitution. Both these systems are additionally worth studying, as they have been important contributors to the theoretical evolution of our own constitutional framework.

Indeed this relevance is magnified as we currently hover irresolutely between a Presidential and a Parliamentary system of Government – and the US and the British Systems epitomise these two choices. And yet our own constitutional brew has other ingredients, that are unique to our history, culture and politics and that is what makes this entire exercise all the more intriguing. The study of constitutional law is particularly poignant and meaningful at this point in time, given the fundamental constitutional dilemmas, which Pakistan is facing once again.