Identification of Obstructions during the Constitution-Making in Pakistan: The First Report of Basic Principles Committee

Abstract

Constitutional history of Pakistan took almost nine laborious years to form the first constitution of
the country in 1956. After the death of Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of
Pakistan, a competition of influence, power and prestige started between the office of Prime
Minister and the Governor General. Similarly, problems regarding the nature of state, division of
power, Centre province clash and the quantum of representation in the central parliament and on
language adoption problem deteriorated the situation. However, formation of the Basic Principles
Committee (BPC) with the promulgation of Objective Resolution provided a right direction to the
formation of the Constitution on the permanent basis by identifying certain issues i.e., language
issue, representation problem and the character of the constitution. Although the report was
rejected by majority of the political elite of East Pakistan, yet it rightly pointed out the hindrances in
the structure of the constitution for the newly independent state of Pakistan. The paper mainly
deals with the question that how BPC tried to handle the existing situation where all stakeholder
wanted to see the next coming constitution according to their aspirations even at the cast of others.