Constitutional And Political History Of Pakistan By Hamid Khan.pdf May 2026
Before analyzing the book, one must understand the author. Hamid Khan is not merely an academic historian; he is a senior Pakistani Supreme Court lawyer and a former President of the Supreme Court Bar Association of Pakistan. Unlike pure historians who rely only on archives, Khan brings a practitioner’s lens. He has lived through the later periods of martial law, the lawyers' movement, and the restoration of the judiciary.
This dual expertise—legal rigor combined with historical narrative—makes his book indispensable. He writes not as a distant observer but as an active participant in Pakistan's constitutional evolution, yet he maintains the objectivity required for academic reference.
Hamid Khan argues that Pakistan’s constitutional history is a struggle between democratic constitutionalism and authoritarian populism (often aided by the military-bureaucratic establishment). The book focuses on: Before analyzing the book, one must understand the author
| Feature | Detail | | --- | --- | | System | Parliamentary (Prime Minister as executive) | | President | Ceremonial; elected by joint sitting of parliament | | Federalism | Two houses (Senate equal provincial representation; NA by population) | | Islamic Provisions | Islam as state religion; Council of Islamic Ideology; Laws repugnant to Quran/Sunnah void | | Fundamental Rights | Justiciable (suspended during emergency) |
Hamid Khan’s assessment: Most balanced constitution; repeatedly violated by later regimes. Political fallout: Rise of opposition under Fatima Jinnah
The curtain rises on a scene of chaotic birth. In August 1947, Pakistan emerged not just as a country, but as an idea—a homeland for the Muslims of the subcontinent. But the script for this new nation was unfinished. The founding fathers, led by the ailing but visionary Muhammad Ali Jinnah, faced an existential question: Who are we?
Jinnah’s death in 1948 left a vacuum that history rushed to fill. For the first decade, the country drifted. The Constituent Assembly, tasked with drafting the constitution, became a stage for political maneuvering rather than legislation. The tragedy of the period was the failure of consensus. The politicians of the East (Bengal) and the West (Punjab, Sindh, Frontier, and Balochistan) could not agree on the fundamental structure of the state. Council of Islamic Ideology
Hamid Khan illustrates this era as a slow collapse. The Objective Resolution of 1949 laid the spiritual foundation—declaring sovereignty belonged to Allah—but the political house remained unbuilt. By 1954, the Governor-General dismissed the elected assembly, setting a fatal precedent: the executive would always trump the legislature. When the first Constitution finally arrived in 1956, it was a fragile compromise, born of exhaustion. It lasted only two years.