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Pakistan
CONSTITUTIONAL AND POLITICAL INHERITANCE
Independence
Pakistan, in its comparatively short history, has tried various
forms of parliamentary, military, and presidential governments
in its efforts to achieve political stability. At independence
Pakistan was governed by the Government of India Act of 1935 as
amended by the authority of the India Independence Act of 1947.
The amended act provided at the center for a governor general
(as successor to the British viceroy) as head of state and for
a Constituent Assembly with two separate functions--to prepare
a constitution and to be a federal legislature until the constitution
came into effect.
At the outset, however, this structure of governor general and
parliamentary legislature took on singular characteristics tailored
to the personality, prestige, and unique position occupied by
Jinnah, Pakistan's first governor general (see table 13, Appendix).
At independence, he was the supreme authority, the founder of
the state, and the chief political leader. As head of the All-India
Muslim League, in 1940 he mobilized the political effort that
in just seven years won Pakistan's independence. His ultimate
authority came not from military power, not from the support of
the bureaucracy, and not from constitutional prerogatives but
from the political support of the people. In these circumstances,
Jinnah chose to unite in himself the functions of head of state
and the power of chief executive and party boss. In addition to
his position as governor general, he was elected president of
the Constituent Assembly.
For the office of governor general to be held by an active party
politician who continued as political leader was an innovation.
Initially, the arrangement may have seemed necessary to preserve
national unity after independence and to facilitate the work of
the new government. When Jinnah died, the prime minister, Liaquat
Ali Khan, and the cabinet assumed increased power, in more traditional
roles, and Khwaja Nazimuddin, as the new governor general, became
a more traditional, nonpolitical head of state. Liaquat, however,
found it difficult to establish his political authority. Whether
the transfer of effective power to Liaquat while Jinnah was still
alive might have created a precedent for future political stability
in Pakistan is a moot point. Liaquat's assassination, three years
later in October 1951, was the catalyst for a series of constitutional
and political crises that over the years seemed almost endemic.
Data as of April 1994
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