Issues of Federalism in Pakistan: A Historical Study of Constitutional Amendments (1973-2010)

Abstract

Federalism is the most vibrant concern in Pakistan‟s constitutional polity. Due to a number of cultural contrasts and regional aspirations, the constitution framing required extraordinary planning. The government under Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto framed the 1973 Constitution with the near consensus of all political parties in the Parliament. Later on, he introduced seven amendments in it. During the regimes of Zial ul Haq and Pervez Musharraf, the Eighth and Seventeenth Amendments were introduced respectively, empowering the President to dissolve the National Assembly in his discretion. Having been introduced in 1997, during the government of Muhammad Nawaz Sharif, the Thirteenth Amendment rescinded this power of the President. The Eighteenth Amendment which was enacted in 2010, sought to clean the Constitution of undemocratic insertions. Keeping the checkered constitutional history of Pakistan in view, a focused study is necessary to analyze the real motives behind constitutional amendments, their impacts on Pakistani federalism and to explore the ways for strengthening it. The study has been conducted to find out answers of these questions. 1) What have been the motives behind introducing constitutional amendments pertaining to federalism in Pakistan and what impacts these amendments have engendered? 2) Which factors have played key role in introducing the Eighteenth Amendment? 3) What steps should be taken to strengthen the federalism in Pakistan in the backdrop of our provincial aspirations? To find out the answers, descriptive and analytical approaches based on primary and secondary sources have been followed. The conclusions have been drawn on the basis of analysis of interviews of contemporary parliamentarians, academic scholarship, judgments of Superior Courts, Senate proceedings, reports of Parliamentary Committees, books, journals and news papers. The 1973 Constitution was modified at different occasions to achieve certain personal motives rather than national interests. The prime objectives behind Eighth and Seventeenth Amendments were to legitimize and prolong the undemocratic regimes. Consequently, federal-parliamentary character of the Constitution was changed by accumulating powers in the office of President. These constitutional amendments weakened the federalism and vitiated Centre-Provinces‟ relations. The elected governments of Benazir Bhutto and Muhammad Nawaz Sharif were toppled before completing their terms. In their quest to ward off such recurrences, they inked the “Charter of Democracy” in 2006, which formed the basis for introducing the Eighteenth Amendment. By consulting the mentioned sources, it is concluded that there is a need to implement the Eighteenth Amendment in letter and spirit for bolstering the federalism in Pakistan, as it has aFederalism is the most vibrant concern in Pakistan‟s constitutional polity. Due to a number of cultural contrasts and regional aspirations, the constitution framing required extraordinary planning. The government under Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto framed the 1973 Constitution with the near consensus of all political parties in the Parliament. Later on, he introduced seven amendments in it. During the regimes of Zial ul Haq and Pervez Musharraf, the Eighth and Seventeenth Amendments were introduced respectively, empowering the President to dissolve the National Assembly in his discretion. Having been introduced in 1997, during the government of Muhammad Nawaz Sharif, the Thirteenth Amendment rescinded this power of the President. The Eighteenth Amendment which was enacted in 2010, sought to clean the Constitution of undemocratic insertions. Keeping the checkered constitutional history of Pakistan in view, a focused study is necessary to analyze the real motives behind constitutional amendments, their impacts on Pakistani federalism and to explore the ways for strengthening it. The study has been conducted to find out answers of these questions. 1) What have been the motives behind introducing constitutional amendments pertaining to federalism in Pakistan and what impacts these amendments have engendered? 2) Which factors have played key role in introducing the Eighteenth Amendment? 3) What steps should be taken to strengthen the federalism in Pakistan in the backdrop of our provincial aspirations? To find out the answers, descriptive and analytical approaches based on primary and secondary sources have been followed. The conclusions have been drawn on the basis of analysis of interviews of contemporary parliamentarians, academic scholarship, judgments of Superior Courts, Senate proceedings, reports of Parliamentary Committees, books, journals and news papers. The 1973 Constitution was modified at different occasions to achieve certain personal motives rather than national interests. The prime objectives behind Eighth and Seventeenth Amendments were to legitimize and prolong the undemocratic regimes. Consequently, federal-parliamentary character of the Constitution was changed by accumulating powers in the office of President. These constitutional amendments weakened the federalism and vitiated Centre-Provinces‟ relations. The elected governments of Benazir Bhutto and Muhammad Nawaz Sharif were toppled before completing their terms. In their quest to ward off such recurrences, they inked the “Charter of Democracy” in 2006, which formed the basis for introducing the Eighteenth Amendment. By consulting the mentioned sources, it is concluded that there is a need to implement the Eighteenth Amendment in letter and spirit for bolstering the federalism in Pakistan, as it has attempted to address many of provincial concerns.