Pakistan's 1956 Constitution: Structure, Islamic Provisions, and Abrogation

Forging a Fragile Consensus

Following the 1954 dissolution, a new Constituent Assembly was formed. The political leadership, under pressure to end the constitutional void, moved with renewed urgency. The task fell to Prime Minister Chaudhry Muhammad Ali, a seasoned bureaucrat turned politician, to pilot the constitutional bill.

One of the most significant hurdles—the issue of representation between the populous but smaller East Pakistan and the vast but less populated western wing—was resolved through a controversial political maneuver: the "One Unit" scheme of 1955. All provinces and princely states in West Pakistan were merged into a single province, "West Pakistan." This created a formal parity with "East Pakistan," allowing for equal representation in the federal legislature and breaking the long-standing deadlock. It was on this foundation of parity that the constitution was finally drafted and promulgated on March 23, 1956.

Salient Features of the 1956 Constitution

The 1956 Constitution was a comprehensive document comprising 234 articles. It represented a compromise between various competing interests and ideologies that had defined the previous decade of debate. Let's explore its key features.

As you've seen in the video, the constitution established a specific political and ideological framework. Let's delve deeper into these features with a more detailed analysis.

1. A Federal Parliamentary Republic

The constitution established a federal system with two provinces: East Pakistan and West Pakistan. Power was divided between the central government and the provinces through three legislative lists:

• Federal List: 30 subjects exclusively for the central legislature (e.g., defense, foreign affairs, currency).
• Provincial List: 94 subjects for the provincial assemblies (e.g., education, health, police).
• Concurrent List: 19 subjects on which both could legislate, with federal law prevailing in case of conflict.

It also instituted a parliamentary form of government, where the Prime Minister was the Head of Government and the leader of the majority in the National Assembly. The President was the Head of State, a role intended to be largely ceremonial. The legislature was unicameral, consisting of a single house, the National Assembly, with 300 members equally divided between East and West Pakistan (150 each).

2. Islamic Provisions

The constitution sought to balance the demands for an Islamic state with the structures of modern governance. This was a direct response to the ideological debates that started with the Objectives Resolution.

To understand the core provisions and their context, please read the following text.

The key Islamic provisions can be summarized as follows:

• Official Name: The country was named the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.
• Preamble: The Objectives Resolution was included as the preamble, affirming the sovereignty of Allah and the principles of Islamic democracy and social justice.
• Head of State: The President was required to be a Muslim.
• Repugnancy Clause: A crucial provision stated that no law would be enacted which was repugnant to the injunctions of Islam as laid down in the Holy Quran and Sunnah. Existing laws were to be brought into conformity. However, this clause was not justiciable, meaning it could not be enforced by the courts.
• Islamic Institutions: An organization for Islamic research and instruction was to be established.

3. Other Key Features

• Fundamental Rights: A comprehensive list of fundamental rights was included and made justiciable.
• Independent Judiciary: The constitution provided for an independent judiciary headed by a Supreme Court, which acted as the interpreter of the constitution.
• National Languages: In a major concession to East Pakistan, both Urdu and Bengali were recognized as national languages.

The Abrogation: An Unworkable Constitution?

On October 7, 1958, President Iskander Mirza abrogated the constitution, dismissed the central and provincial governments, and declared Martial Law. General Ayub Khan was appointed Chief Martial Law Administrator. Mirza claimed the constitution was "unworkable" and full of "dangerous compromises." Was he right? Or were other forces at play?

The failure of the 1956 Constitution was less about its text and more about the political culture and power dynamics into which it was born.

The reasons for its abrogation are multi-faceted and represent a classic CSS question. Let's synthesize the analysis.

• The Viceregal Legacy Persists: The constitution provided for a parliamentary system where the Prime Minister should have been supreme. However, the President, Iskander Mirza, was a product of the same civil-military bureaucratic elite as his predecessor, Ghulam Muhammad. He had no intention of being a mere figurehead. He used his discretionary powers to manipulate politics, contributing to the rapid turnover of four prime ministers in just two years (Chaudhry M. Ali, H.S. Suhrawardy, I.I. Chundrigar, and Feroz Khan Noon).

• Political Immaturity and Instability: The Muslim League, the party of independence, had disintegrated into factions. No single party commanded a stable majority in the assembly. This led to weak coalition governments vulnerable to presidential intrigue and "floor-crossing"—the practice of politicians switching party loyalties for personal gain or ministerial posts.

• Absence of General Elections: The constitution's legitimacy was never tested at the polls. The National Assembly that passed it was indirectly elected. The first general elections were scheduled for early 1959, but the ruling elite, fearing a loss of power, continuously delayed them. A system without a popular mandate is inherently fragile and lacks the public support needed to withstand pressure from unelected institutions.

• The Unresolved Tensions of Federalism: While the One Unit scheme created formal parity, it did not address East Pakistan's deep-seated grievances over economic disparity and its underrepresentation in the civil service and military. These unresolved tensions continued to strain the federal structure.

In essence, the 1956 Constitution failed because the democratic and parliamentary culture required to sustain it did not exist. It was a parliamentary framework superimposed on a political system where real power remained with an undemocratic civil-military establishment, personified by President Iskander Mirza. The abrogation was not a consequence of a flawed text, but a seizure of power by an elite unwilling to subject itself to the discipline of constitutional, parliamentary rule.

Conclusion

In this lesson, we have dissected the 1956 Constitution, recognizing it as a landmark attempt to forge a national consensus on the structure of the Pakistani state. It established a federal, parliamentary republic with significant Islamic provisions.

Your key takeaways should be:

• Key Features: The constitution was written, federal, parliamentary, and unicameral. It declared Pakistan an Islamic Republic and included the Objectives Resolution as its preamble.
• The Central Conflict: It created a parliamentary system on paper, but the President, inheriting the viceregal tendencies of his predecessors, actively undermined it.
• Reasons for Failure: Its collapse was caused by a combination of presidential interference, the weakness of political parties, the absence of general elections, and persistent provincial tensions.
• The Verdict: The constitution was not inherently "unworkable"; rather, the powerful ruling elite made it unworkable because they were not prepared to cede power to democratic institutions.

The abrogation of the constitution and the imposition of Martial Law in 1958 marked the end of Pakistan's first democratic experiment. This event paved the way for a decade of military rule under General Ayub Khan, who would soon introduce a new constitutional system designed to centralize power in the presidency. In our next lesson, we will analyze the key features of the 1962 Constitution and its role in fundamentally reshaping the political landscape of Pakistan.