This volume provides a contextual account of Pakistan's constitutional laws and history. It aims to describe the formal structure of government in reference to origins that are traced to the administrative centralisation and legal innovations of colonial rule. It also situates the tide of Muslim nationalism that gave rise to the nation of Pakistan within a terrain of nascent constitutionalism and its associated promises of representation. The post-colonial history of the Pakistani state is charted by reference to succeeding constitutions and the distribution of powers between the major branches of government that they augured. Where conventional histories often suggest that constitutionalism in Pakistan is to be solely understood by reference to a cycle of abidance and rupture, and in the oscillation between military and civilian rule, this volume also accounts for the many points of continuity between regime types. The contours of a broader constitutionalism come to light in the ways in which state power is wielded at different periods and in the range of contests – economic, political and cultural – through which some of this power is sought to be dispersed. Chapters on Rights, Federalism and Islam detail the contextual features of some of these contests and the normative, legal parameters through which they are provisionally settled.

It has been seven decades since the independent state of Pakistan was carved out of British India, yet the country is still in pursuit of a suitable constitutional framework. Over this period of time, no other country has experimented with so many different constitutional forms, from parliamentary democracy to presidential form of government, to outright military regimes. This book analyses constitutional development in Pakistan from its inception to present times. It provides a case-by-case account of constitution-making in Pakistan, with the inclusion of all pertinent documentation. Constitutional developments have been explained in the context of social and political events that shaped them. The book focuses on constitutional and political history, and constitutional development concurrently. It includes a liberal humanitarian reading of the travails of lawmakers and the role of generals, judges, politicians, and bureaucrats in the implementation of law. Students of law, political science, and history, as well as lawyers, judges, and professors will find this book of particular value. Being grounded in a socio-political context, this book is also of interest to the general reader. The third edition is updated to cover the constitutional and political developments up until 2013.

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Presents a deeply contextualized account of public law and judicial review in Pakistan.

The political history of Pakistan is characterised by incomplete constitution-making, a process which has placed the burden of constitutional interpretation on state instruments ranging from the bureaucracy to the military to the judiciary. In a penetrating and original study of the relationship between state and civil society in Pakistan, Paula Newberg demonstrates how the courts have influenced constitutional development and the structure of the state. By examining judicial decisions, particularly those made at times of political crisis, she considers how tensions within the judiciary, and between courts and other state institutions, have affected the ways political society views itself, and explores the consequences of these debates for the formal organisation of political power.

This book examines constitutional law and practice in five South Asian countries: India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, and Bangladesh.