Basic Principle Committee

Interim Report (1950)

The Basic Principles Committee was formed on 12th
March 1949 by the first Constituent Assembly of
Pakistan. The Basic Principles Committee comprised of
24 members. These individuals were not required to
be the members of the first Constituent Assembly. It
was headed by Maulvi Tameezuddin Khan and Liaquat
Ali Khan was its Vice President. The task assigned to
the Basic Principles Committee was to determine the
basic principles for framing the future constitution of
Pakistan.
 Basic Principle Committee Interim
Report (1950)
Molvi, Tzeem udin Khan
(1889 - 19 August 1963), was the President
(speaker) of Pakistan's first Constituent
Assembly
Tamizuddin created history when the
Constituent Assembly was dismissed by
Governor General Ghulam Mohammad in
1954. Tamizuddin challenged the dismissal
in the court and the case was filed in the
morning of 7 November 1954, by
Advocate Manzar-e-Alam. Although the
High Court agreed and overturned it, the
Federal Court under Justice Muhammad
Munir upheld the dismissal. He had been
president of the Basic Principles
Committee set up in 1949.
 Basic Principle Committee Interim
Report (1950)
There were three sub committees set-up under the Basic Principles
Committee:
1. Sub-committee on federal and provincial constitution and
distribution of powers
2. Sub-committee on franchise
3. Sub-committee for judiciary
 Basic Principle Committee Interim
Report (1950
• The task of these committees was to make
recommendation regarding the area of their
expertise.
• On 28th September 1950 the BPC presented
its interim report to the Constituent Assembly.
The salient features of this report were as
following:
 Basic Principle Committee Interim
Report (1950)
1. Objectives Resolution should be made part of
the constitution and should serve as the
directive principle of state policy.
2. The state of Pakistan was to be a federation.
3. The Central Legislature was to be bicameral.
It would consist of a House of Unit (Upper
House) with 100 members and a House of
People (Lower House) with 400 members.
 Basic Principle Committee Interim
Report (1950)
4. The Upper House was to be the
representative institution of the provinces,
elected by provincial legislature. While the
Lower House was to be elected by the people
on the basis of adult franchise.
5. The tenure of both the Houses was to be five
years and both were to enjoy equal power.
 Basic Principle Committee Interim
Report (1950)
6. The decisions regarding budget or monetary
bills were to be decided in joint sessions of the
two houses.
7. The Head of state was to be elected by a joint
session of the two houses for a term of five
years and would work on the advice of the
Prime Minister.
 Basic Principle Committee Interim
Report (1950)
8. Federal legislature had the authority to
remove the head of state.
9. Each province was to have its own legislature;
elected on the basis of adult franchise for a
term of five years.
10. Head of the provincial legislature was to be
elected by the head of state for a term of five
years and he was to work on the advice of
Chief Minister.
 Basic Principle Committee Interim
Report (1950)
11. Legislative power was to be divided in three
lists:
a) The Federal list comprising of 67 subjects on
which the central legislature would legislate.
b) The Provincial list comprising of 35 items, the
provincial legislature would legislate on these
subjects. And
c) The Concurrent list of 37 items on which both
the central and provincial legislatures had the
authority to legislate. The residuary powers
were vested in the center.
 Basic Principle Committee Interim
Report (1950)
12. In case of a dispute, the Supreme Court had
the authority to interpret the constitution.
13. The procedure to amend the constitution
was very rigid; it required a majority approval
from the central and provincial legislatures.
14. Head of the state was given added powers
like the authority to abrogate the constitution
and issue ordinances.
 Basic Principle Committee Interim
Report (1950)
15. Urdu was to be the state language.
16. The Supreme Court was the head of judiciary. It
would consist of the Chief Justice and 2 to 6
judges. And High Courts for each province were
to be established.
17. A Board of Ulama would be appointed by the
head of state and provincial governors to
examine the process of law making and to ensure
that laws were in accordance with the Quran and
Sunnah.
 Basic Principle Committee Interim
Report (1950
REACTION:
1. The reaction to this report proved
counterproductive and was not conducive to
success.
2. As a consequence popularity of the First
Constituent Assembly was badly maligned.
Resultantly Liaquat Ali Khan was forced to
postpone his considerations on account of
severe criticism on the part of East Pakistan. This
delay led to many complications in the progress
of the First Constituent Assembly.
 Basic Principle Committee Interim
Report (1950)
3. The crux of criticism was related to
underrepresentation in the central legislature and
the proposal for a strong center with vast powers
on financial matters. East Pakistan was given
equal number of seats in Upper House, the same
as West Pakistan. Thus it reduces the principle of
majority and turned East Pakistan into a minority.
Moreover, the interim report was preposterous
for the East Pakistan since it Urdu as national
language and Bengali was nowhere in the
constitutional arena.
 Basic Principle Committee Interim
Report (1950)
CONSEQUENCES OF REACTION:
1. As a result of this reaction, Liaquat Ali Khan
postponed the consideration of report and
invited new suggestions.
2. In order to include public opinion he called
forth general comments and suggestions by
public on the report.
 Basic Principle Committee Interim
Report (1950)
3. For this a committee was setup in the headed
by Sardar Abdur Rab Nishter, who presented a
report in the Constituent assembly on July
1952.
Resultantly, the struggle for making a
constitution caused serious apprehension in
the mind of East Pakistan. They felt that the
Bengali interests were not safe in such a state
of affairs.
 Report of the Basic Principle
Committee (1952)
The Basic Principles Committee was
established on 12th March 1949 by
Khawaja Nazimuddin on the
instruction of Prime Minister Liaquat
Ali Khan. This committee had 24
members and was headed by
Khawaja Nazimuddin and Liaquat
Khan was its vice president. This
committee presented its first report
on 1950 but was severely criticized,
particularly in East Pakistan so it
referred back to the Constituent
Assembly.
 Report of the Basic Principle
Committee (1952)
Sub committees were also appointed for
public suggestions and these sub
committees made their reports and
presented them to the Basic Principles
Committee which then presented the final
and complete report to the Constituent
Assembly in 1952. The report was revised
before an agreement could be reached in
the Constituent Assembly.
 Report of the Basic Principle
Committee (1952)
The prominent features of the report were:
o Objective resolution was adopted as a preamble to the
proposed constitution and its principles were to guide the
state. Another important clause was that which laid down
procedure to prevent any legislation to be made against
the Quran and Sunnah.
o Head of the State should be a Muslim and elected by the
both Houses of federal legislature for a term of 5 year.
o Seats were also allocated for communities in the House of
People
o Word unit was specified for all provinces, capital and
federations. The head of these units were to be selected
for a term of 5 years.
 Report of the Basic Principle
Committee (1952)
o The formula gave weightage to the smaller units
of West Pakistan. Federal legislature comprised of
two Houses, House of Units consisted of 120
members.
o The East Bengal legislature was to elect 60
members according to principle of proportional
representation and the rest of the members were
to be elected from west by the same rule.
o The House of People had real authority and
comprised of 400 members, 200 from West and
200 from East Pakistan.
o Chief Minister of each unit and minister were
appointed by the Head of that unit and ministers
for each unit would be chosen by the Chief
Minister
 Report of the Basic Principle
Committee (1952)
o When the federal legislature was not in session,
Head of the State could promulgate ordinances. The
Head of the State could dissolve the House of People
on the advice or counsel of minister.
o Chief justice of the Supreme Court would be
appointed by the Head of the State and other 6
judges would also be appointed by the Head of the
State by the recommendations of Chief Justice.
o Guarantees were also given to the civil servants of
the federation and units against the dismissal, and to
reduction in the rank without opportunity to
showcases
 Report of the Basic Principle
Committee (1952)
o But the second and final report of the Basic Principles Committee was not
received too well. The report was criticized because of these defects:
 The draft ignored the fact that East Bengal contained majority of the
population of the country and West Pakistan had the major part of the
country’s territory.
 The draft made the lower house a weak replica of the House of People
and reduced its utility. It also made no provision if both houses were
unable to resolve the conflict in joint session.
o Like the first report this was also criticized but this time criticism arose
from Punjab which considered the federal formula to be defective.
o They demanded equal representation for various units in lower house and
equal power for both Houses.
 Report of the Basic Principle
Committee (1952)
o The Punjab members in the Basic Principles Committee and the
Federal Cabinet disliked the formula because they felt East
Pakistan would easily dominate West Pakistan which had been
divided into nine units.
o Religious leaders were also not satisfied with the Islamic
character of the recommended constitution especially with
regards to their demand for declaration of Ahmadis as non-
Muslims.
 Dissolution of the 1st Constituent
Assembly
o Pro-US Governor General, Ghulam
Muhammad, and Prime Minister,
Muhammad Ali Bogra, were moving well
and in a cooperative way.
o Both had a mission to bring Pakistan in the
Western camp.
o However, they were afraid of the ever
increasing popularity of the anti-US and
anti-establishment forces in the country,
especially in East Bengal.
o Victory of United Front in the 1954
provincial assembly elections appeared as a
threat to their intentions.
 Dissolution of the 1st Constituent
Assembly
o The members of the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan had
openly started criticizing the attempts to bring Pakistan
closer to the United States.
o In a statement issued on September 22, Fazlur Rahman,
the formal federal minister, alleged that the proposed Pak-
US cooperation would ‘seriously jeopardize the political
and economic interests of Pakistan
o it would ultimately result in the colonization of the country
by America.
o On his initiative the assembly decided to send a trade
delegation to Soviet Union with an idea to bring the two
countries closer.
o Furthermore, the Constituent Assembly was not happy
with the ever increasing role of the Governor-General and
day to day affairs of the government.
 Dissolution of the 1st Constituent
Assembly
o They also disliked the power of the Governor-General to dissolve the
government.
o When Ghulam Muhammad was on an official tour of NWFP, the CAP
amended the constitution and snatched away his discretionary power
under which he had dismissed Nazimuddin’s government.
o Ghulam Muhammad cut short his tour and immediately retuned back to
Karachi.
o On his return he first of all tried to win over important politicians including
Ayub Khuhro, Mumtaz Daultana, Fazlul Haq and Dr. Khan Sahib etc. and
then took Ayub Khan into confidence.
o Once he was sure that he had the backing of the people who matter on
October 24 he dissolved the CAP on the ground that it had lost the
confidence of the people of Pakistan.
 Dissolution of the 1st Constituent
Assembly
o He imposed press censorship and promised fresh elections. Bogra, the
Prime Minister of the dissolved assembly endorsed the move and declared
CAP was responsible for imperiling national unity by provoking personal,
sectional and provincial rivalries and suspicion. He was made the Prime
Minister of the Cabinet which used back door to gain power.
 Maulvi Tamizuddin Case
Maulvi Tamizuddin Khan, the president of the dissolved CAP did not submit to the idea
and along with other members tried to hold the already scheduled session of the
assembly on October 28. When they were not allowed to enter the assembly hall,
on November 7 he filled a writ in the Sindh Chief Court against the action of the
Governor-General. On February 9, 1955, a full bench of the Sindh Chief Court gave
verdict in favour of Maulvi Tamizuddin and ordered that the Governor-General had
no power to dissolve the CAP. After the ruling, Maulvi Tamizuddin called the
meeting of the CAP on March 7. Bogra, after consulting Ghulam Muhammad, who
was in Paris at that time for his medical treatment, decided to challenge the
decision in the Federal Court. Chief Justice of the Federal Court, Justice
Muhammad Munir, assured the government that the judgment of the Sindh Court
would be reverted. The Federal Court, working according to doctrine of necessity,
did not go into the question, whether the CAP was legally dissolved or not. Rather,
they rejected the writ on technical ground that Section 233A under which the writ
had been issued in favour of Maulvi Tamizuddin was not yet law since it had not
received the assent of the Governor-General. One member of the five member
bench, Justice A.R. Cornelius held that the assent of the Governor General was not
required for constitutional Act and believed that they decision of the Sindh Chief
Court should be upheld. The history of Pakistan would have been different, had
the voice of Justice Cornelius be heard by the other four judges of the bench.