SINCE dawn of independence this country has seen many changes and experiments in the political structure of the country. The first constitution of the country saw the light of the day in 1956 but this constitution survived only two years and was abrogated by General Ayub Khan when he imposed Martial law in 1958. General Ayub came up with the system of Basic democracies and a Presidential system and gave us the handcrafted constitution of 1962. This system was discarded by Gen Yahya Khan in second martial laws in 1969 and the provinces were restored and the country was governed under the provisional constitution order and elections were held on the principle of one man one vote in December 1970. After the disastrous war of 1971 Zulifiqar Ali Bhutto managed to get the 1973 constitution passed by consensus by the National assembly and this constitution with many amendments has withstood the test of timeand survived the military dictatorships of Gen Zia and Gen Musharraf.

Now once again there is a whispering campaign in the country about some drastic changes to the political structure of the country. Cabinet ministers and some influential media persons are now talking of some sort of administrative restructuring for creating some new provinces in the immediate future and it is being trumpeted that this is a change wanted by the people of Pakistan but how was the will of the people known? There has been no debate........

© Pakistan Observer