Basic Principles Committee

The Basic Principles Committee (BPC) was a specialised committee set up on March 1949 by Khawaja Nazimuddin on the advice of prime minister Liaquat Ali Khan. The committee’s sole purpose was to determine the basic underlying principles that would determine future constitutions and legislature in Pakistan.

Initial recommendations and proposals suggested by the BPC were highly criticised in the local media and public. Much of the criticism came from East Pakistan where the committee proposals were said to be subversive of the ideology of Pakistan, under-representing the majority province and neglecting the Bengali language thoroughly in the constitutional and legislative process. The suggestion of the formation of a religious oversight board was also seen as "undemocratic [and] an insult to Islam".

Before the first constituent assembly of Pakistan could formulate any constitution or legislature, it was necessary to put in order the basic principles that would determine how the constitution should be framed. On 7 March 1949, the Objectives Resolution was passed, which serves to this day as the ground norm for constitutional process in Pakistan. The resolution was adopted by the constituent assembly on 12 March 1949.

The Basic Principles Committee (BPC) was formed on the same day by the constituent assembly. The committee was set up by governor-general Khawaja Nazimuddin upon advice from prime minister Liaquat Ali Khan. It was presided over by Maulvi Tamizuddin Khan with Liaquat Ali Khan serving also as its vice-president. The committee had 24 other members, though not all were members of the constituent assembly as well.

The purpose of the BPC was to formulate the basic principles based on the Objectives Resolution using which the future constitutions of Pakistan would be framed. The committee was asked to propose basic principles and concerned recommendations that would help the constituent assembly with their constitutional and legislative tasks. In order to do so, the committee had its initial two meetings in April 1949 where three distinct sub-committees were formed to deal with specialised tasks:

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