Constitution of Pakistan of 1962

The Constitution of 1962 was the fundamental law of Pakistan from June 1962 until martial law was declared in March 1969. It was eventually replaced by the current Constitution of 1973.

Pakistan became an independent state in 1947. The first document that served as a constitution for Pakistan was the Government of India Act, 1935. The first Pakistani Constituent Assembly was elected in 1947 and after nine years adopted the first indigenous constitution, the short-lived Constitution of 1956. In October 1958, President Iskander Mirza abrogated the constitution. Shortly afterwards General Ayub Khan deposed Iskandar and declared himself president.

On 17 February 1960 Ayub Khan appointed a commission to report on the future political framework for the country. The Commission was headed by the former Chief Justice of Pakistan, Muhammad Shahabuddin, and had ten other members, five each from East Pakistan and West Pakistan, composed of retired judges, lawyers, industrialists and landlords. The report of the Constitution Commission was presented to President Ayub on 6 May 1961 and thoroughly examined by the President and his Cabinet. In January 1962, the Cabinet finally approved the text of the new constitution. It was promulgated by President Ayub on 1 March 1962 and finally came into effect on 8 June 1962. The Constitution contained 250 articles divided into twelve parts and three schedules.

Pakistan was named as Republic of Pakistans. The constitution provided for a federal system with the principle of parity between East Pakistan and West Pakistan. Both the provinces would run their separate provincial governments. The responsibilities and authority of the centre and the provinces were clearly listed in the constitution. The central legislature had one house known as the National Assembly. There were 157 members of the National Assembly. The equality between the two wings were maintained in it.

The constitution provided for a presidential form of government, as opposed to the parliamentary form of government under the 1962 Constitution. The President, who had to be a Muslim not less than 35 years of age and qualified for election as a member of the National Assembly, was to be elected indirectly by an electoral college in accordance with the provisions outlined in the Constitution. The Electoral College formed by not less than 80,000 Basic Democrats, equally distributed between the two provinces. Under the Constitution of 1962, if the number of candidates for election to the office of President exceeded three, the Speaker of the National Assembly was to convene a joint session of the members of the National and Provincial Assemblies to select only three candidates for election, the remaining candidates then would not be eligible. This screening was not applicable to a person who was holding the office of the president, so if the sitting president was also a candidate the number of candidates would be four.

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