CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF PAKISTAN

Constitutional and Political Development (1947-1973)

Pakistan came into being as an independent State in August, 1947 and continued to be governed
under an interim constitutional arrangement (i.e. through the Indian Independence Act, 1947).
Pakistan has had a troubled constitutional history since its very inception as a nation state. Not long
after partition from India in 1947, Pakistan was plunged into a Constitutional crisis in 1954 when the
Governor General dissolved the Constituent Assembly when he did not agree to the proposed
constitution. This first major subversion of the constitutional process was challenged before the
Federal Court, which validated the dissolution of the assembly in the Moulvi Tamizuddin case
(1955 Federal Court 240). Although a new Constituent Assembly adopted the country ‟ s first
constitution in March, 1956, it lasted only two years until the first President of Pakistan,
Major-General Iskander Mirza, abrogated the Constitution, dissolved the national and provincial
legislatures and imposed Martial Law in October, 1958, appointing General Ayub Khan as the Chief
Martial Law Administrato