All you wanted to know about the 1956 Constitution of Pakistan!

The 1956 constitution was established by Chaudary Muhammad Ali on 23rd March, 1956. Here is all you wanted to know about the 1956 Constitution:

1. Provincial government system was constructed and the authority holder was the governor of the particular province who would pick the provincial assembly and would be the decisive power in the province. Every province was considered as a separate entity with separate assembly. The membership of the assembly would rely on the population of the province. 

2. In order to maintain and sustain the policy of the state, few leading set of rules were made to ease down the matters nationally and internationally. These included the adherence to UNO Charter, to develop intimate relations with Islamic countries, rights of minorities were protected, promotion of education, freedom of judiciary etc.
   
   
3. Supreme Court was in the centre and provincial courts were introduced through this constitution. Courts were free in respect to the functioning of judicial matters. The Supreme Court was the leading institution that was to solve government issues, facilitated law imposition, understand constitution and elevate appeal against any high court decision.
   
   
4. During the emergency, the powers were reserved to the centre. The centre was the only one allowed to impose emergency in case of any foreign invasion or internal disturbances inside the provinces. The Governor was to be given charge but according to the directives shared and ordered by the centre. 

5. The Constitution was Islamic in nature hence it was declared that Pakistan is an Islamic Republic for the first time in the country. No law is supposed to go against the religion of Islamabad and the people living in the country were to abide living according to Islamic values, ethics and morals.
   
   
6. It was a written constitution. Moreover, the Constitution has 234 articles and 5 chapters, therefore, it was quite detailed in nature. Interestingly, United Kingdom has an unwritten constitution. 

7. Veto power was given and amendments could be made in the constitution through a 2/3 majority. Thus, it was surely a flexible constitution. 

8. Languages were clearly defined in the constitution. The two national languages were Urdu and Bangali while English was named as the official language;
   
   
9. Pakistan was declared as a federation in the Constitution. It had two provinces which were East and West Pakistan. Each province had separate government which was allowed freely to manage the affairs under their jurisdiction. The imperative sectors were under the centre in order to sustain unity and the writ of the state. President was the head of federation in the 1956 constitution;
   
   
10. Parliamentary form of government was practiced in the country and according to which, the President was the head of the state while the prime minister was the executive of the state.
    
    
11. The form of the government was unitary. One chamber legislature was designed according to the constitution of 1956. The chamber was enabled as the National Assembly which had 300 members. The term of the chamber was fixed to 5 years but could be discharged before time under some circumstances.

People were given their basic rights and the government was bound to not to blemish those rights. If any government was to spoil people's right, the Supreme Court was authorized to reject the government's act and provide justice to the general public.

There are two things to understand from this:

1. 1973 constitution was not the first one bringing up such basic issues and rights into the constitution of Pakistan
2. Secondly, action speaks louder than words; we need to learn how to implement and respect the law of the land...