1973 constitution emblem

After the tragedy of fall of Dhaka, the whole nation was in a state of sorrow and disarray. The first major need of the time was to enforce a new constitution on the basis of consensus. For this purpose, the national assembly of Pakistan appointed a 25 member committee under the chairmanship of Abdul Hafeez Peerzada to prepare a permanent constitution for the Pakistan. The national assembly of Pakistan passed a bill for the approval of the constitution 10th April 1973 and President gave his assent on the 12th of the same month. This constitution was imposed on the 14th August 1973.

Some of the salient features of the 1973 constitution are given below.

1) In written form
The constitution of 1973 is in the written form as same as the constitution of 1956 and 1962. This constitution consists of 12 parts and 280 articles along with 6 schedules.

2) Preamble
This constitution consists of a preamble which is not part of the actual constitution but has important basics to define. The preamble states that the sovereignty belongs to one and only Allah and there should be no amendment in the constitution against the teachings of Quran and Sunnah.

3) Islamic constitution
Many provisions were added into the constitution to make it more Islamic compared to the previous constitutions. Islam was proclaimed as the state religion and only a Muslim can become the President and Prime minister of Pakistan. The term ‘Muslim’ was defined for the first time in the constitution and Ahmadis were declared non-Muslims according to that provision.

Many other steps were also taken to further boost up the Islamic image of the country.

4) Both rigid and flexible constitution
This constitution is not as rigid as the constitution of America and is not as flexible as the constitution of United Kingdom. Any amendment can be carried out in the constitution by getting a vote of 2/3 majority in the assembly.

5) Federal system
This constitution declared Pakistan a federation consisting of four provinces. There were three lists in the constitution of Pakistan; Federal list, provincial list, and concurrent list. The federal list consisted of departments under the federal government, the Provincial list consisted of residuary powers allocated to the provinces. The concurrent list consisted of commonalities but the federal government had the right to overrule the decision of provinces.

6) Parliamentary form
Constitution proposed the formulation of two houses of parliament. Upper house which is called Senate and the lower house called National Assembly. Upper house represented each province equally whereas lower house was based on the population and constituencies of the province.

7) Independent judiciary
Judiciary adopted an independent stature in the constitution. President will appoint the judges but will not be able to remove them until supreme judicial council recommends.

8) National Language
Urdu was adopted as the national language of Pakistan along with English as the official language for 15 years.

9) Insurance of basic human rights
It was promised in the constitution that government will protect the basic rights of all the citizens of the country.

10) Minority rights
Minorities were given full freedom to worship in their worship places. No one could stop minorities from worshiping and practicing their religion.

Though in later years we saw many amendments and changes in the constitution yet it has the guts to resist all the setbacks, emerging as the most powerful constitution of Pakistan.