Basic principle committee

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Basic principle committee

Intro:- 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. The committee’s sole purpose was to determine the basic underlying principles that would determine future constitutions and legislature in Pakistan.

First proposal (1950)Salient features:The salient features of this report were as following:1. The state of Pakistan was to be a federation. 2. 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.

3. 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.

4. The tenure of both the Houses was to be five years and both were to enjoy equal power.

5. Objectives Resolution should be made part of the constitution and should serve as the directive principle of state policy.

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.

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.

11. Legislative power was to be divided in three lists:i) The Federal list comprising of 67 subjects on which the central

legislature would legislate.ii)The Provincial list comprising of 35 items, the provincial legislature

would legislate on these subjects.iii)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.

 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.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.

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.

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. 

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.

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.

Second proposal:-Salient features:-

The prominent features of the report were:

1. 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.

2. Head of the State should be a Muslim and elected by the both Houses of federal legislature for a term of 5 year.

3. Seats were also allocated for communities in the House of People4. 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.5. The formula gave weightage to the smaller units of West Pakistan. Federal

legislature comprised of two Houses, House of Units consisted of 120 members.6. 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.

7. The House of People had real authority and comprised of 400 members, 200 from West and 200 from East Pakistan.

8. 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

9. 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.

10. 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.

11. 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

Reaction:

The second and final report of the Basic Principles Committee was not received too well. The report was criticized because of these defects:

1. 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.

2. 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.

3. Like the first report this was also criticized but this time criticism arose from Punjab which considered the federal formula to be defective.

4. They demanded equal representation for various units in lower house and equal power for both Houses.

5. 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.

6. 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.