1973 Constitution: A Symbol Of Collective Wisdom Of National Leadership

PESHAWAR, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 10th Apr, 2023 ) :On this day, 50 years ago, all the political and religious leaders of the country unanimously framed the 1973 constitution ensuring all rights to the people of Pakistan including education, equal treatment, freedom of expression and religious practices besides defining jurisdiction, powers and scope of all the state institutions for the smooth running of the democratic parliamentary system.

Closing all the doors of presidential and technocratic governments, the 1973 constitution binds people of all the federating units and gives them equal rights including freedom of movement, and the establishment of political parties and unions.

"The 1973 constitution guarantees all the civil, legal, political, properties, constitutional and others rights including fair and transparent trail besides free education to the people of Pakistan," said Esa Khan, former Advocate General KP, while talking to APP on Monday.

He said the 1973 constitution was so elaborative and inclusive about the fundamental rights of the people such as the right to life, liberty, trade, and association, and declared the laws inconsistent with or derogatory to fundamental rights as null and void.

"Today is a historic day in the country's parliamentary history as 50 years ago on this day the country's unanimous 1973 constitution was approved by all the political and religious parties and islam was declared as the state religion of Pakistan while the minorities were given rights to practice their religion without any fear," he said.

Esa Khan said the most prominent characteristic of the 1973 constitution was that it accommodated proposals from the opposition parties and hence almost all the major political and religious parties of the country accepted it.

Recalling different phases of the constitution, he said on April 7, 1972, the National Assembly appointed a high-level committee to prepare a draft of the permanent constitution of Pakistan and later a bill to provide a constitution was introduced by the committee in the Assembly on February 2, 1973.

"The National Assembly has approved the 1973 Constitution on April 10, 1973, and it came into effect on August 14, 1973, and consequently Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto became the first Prime Minister of Pakistan under the new constitution and Fazal Elahi Chaudhry as the President of Pakistan." He said the first article of the constitution declared Pakistan as a Federal Republic to be known as the Islamic Republic of Pakistan with four federating units including Punjab, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan to be run through the Chief Ministers.

"The 1973 constitution has clearly defined the powers of the President, Prime Minister, legislature, executive and judiciary. Under article 41 of the constitution, the President would be the head of state and would act on the advice of the Prime Minister of Pakistan," he said.

Under the constitution, he said the bicameral legislature including the National Assembly and Senate of Pakistan has absolute power of doing legislation and the political parties that enjoyed support at the national assembly would form the government for a period of five years.

He said the judiciary also derived powers from the 1973 constitution that would protect all the fundamental, constitutional, and legal rights of the citizens of Pakistan, adding any person who was found guilty to abrogate or attempt or conspire to abrogate or subvert the constitution was to be treated guilty of high treason under the constitution.

Recalling the history, Esa Khan said that the 1973 constitution remained in force for nearly four years and was later suspended on July 5, 1979, due to the imposition of martial law in which an 8th amendment was incorporated in 1985 that empowered the President to dissolve the National Assembly under Article 58(2) b.

The draconian article was later repealed by the Parliament during former Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif's era through the 13th amendment introduced on April 1, 1997. However, the amendment was later repealed under the Legal Framework Order of 2002, which restored the discretionary powers of the President to dissolve the assemblies.

Later on, under the 18th constitutional amendment, President Asif Ali Zardari restored the 1973 constitution to its original form on April 19, 2010, and returned all powers back to the Prime Minister and Parliament which was highly appreciated by democratic and political circles.

Gohar Rehman, senior constitutional lawyer and former President of Peshawar Bar said that it was for the first time that all the political and religious leaders agreed upon a national document, which later became the 1973 constitution.

He attributed the credit of the constitution to the former Prime Minister and PPP founder Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto Shaheed and also acknowledged the wisdom of other national leadership including JUIF founder Maulana Mufti Mehmood, JI leader Professor Ghafoor Ahmed, JUIP Central Ameer Allama Shah Ahmad Noorani, ANP President Khan Abdul Wali Khan and others.

Malik Azam Khan, former State Minister and PPP leader said that credit for the unanimous constitution went to the former Prime Minister Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto and the collective wisdom of the national leadership.

He said that all state institutions including the legislature, executive and judiciary derived powers from the constitution and if these work under their constitutional domain Pakistan can address the current political and economic challenges.

The speakers said that the constitution laid great emphasis on a well-defined trichotomy of powers to prevent confrontation among state institutions.

They said the confrontation between the institutions would never happen if we honor the space guaranteed under the constitution by never interfering in each other's domain.

Malik Azmat said Pakistan was created after a historic democratic struggle and it could achieve all heights of success by strictly adhering to the green book which was the panacea of all problems.