Bhutto Opposition Relationship during the Constitution Making Process of Constitution Of 1972

Abstract

A constitution reflects a nation’s aspirations and highlights its attitudes and thoughts. It is regarded as a charter of a nation’s independence. It guarantees the protection of people’s rights and also elaborates the administrative structure, judicial system and political institutions. It indicates the powers and functioning of different organs of a country. Drafting a constitution, even in normal circumstances, is a difficult task because it requires unanimity, concurrence and consensus of opinion involving compromises and political adjustments. In Pakistan constitution making was delayed due to the reason that Pakistan is comprised of peoples of so many races, languages having different opinions and demands. In such a country it is always a difficult task to create a consensus on any important matter. However, after nine years of independence, the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan succeeded in preparing a constitution, which was enforced in 1956, generating optimism about the democratic future of Pakistan. But unfortunately it could not survive for more than two years and was abrogated in 1958 by the first Commander-in-Chief, General Ayub Khan, who on his own, decided to draft a Presidential Constitution envisaging a stronger center. It was enforced in 1962. This new constitution was neither framed by an elected assembly nor consent of the people was ascertained through any accepted democratic method, hence it was bound to fail. When Ayub Khan decided to step down as President of Pakistan on 25th March 1969, he handed over the reins of power to Army Chief General Yahya Khan who imposed Martial Law with immediate effect and announced the abrogation of the Constitution of 1962. In this way, Pakistani nation witnessed the abrogation of two constitutions within a short span of twenty-two years. Now, again Pakistan was running without any constitution. Elections were held under Legal Framework of Order (LFO) introduced by Yahya Khan. After handing over of powers to civil government it became necessary for the government to frame a new unanimous constitution for the country. To frame a new unanimous constitution was a time demanding and chore task. Hence, it was decided firstly to draft an Interim Constitution for the time being to run the state affairs. The opposition parties also participated in framing this constitution and accepted it as a lesser evil as compared to Martial Law. In these circumstances, passing of 1972 constitution by the National Assembly reflecting unanimous support of all the political parties in the house was received with a sense of relief and satisfaction. It was acclaimed to be a creditable achievement of the Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto Government though it was not possible without active participation of opposition parties.