WORKING, GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT OF LEGISLATURE IN PAKISTAN:A STUDY OF SECOND CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY(1954-1958)

UNIVERSITY OF THE PUNJAB

DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY & PAKISTAN STUDIES

By: Farooq Ahmed

Supervised By: DR. MAHBOOB HUSSAIN

Academic Level: MPhil

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Abstract

Pakistan’s early history is marked with so many challenges and tribulations, the most important of which was the power politics between the civil-military bureaucracy and the politicians. Unfortunately, the first constituent assembly was desolated on 24th October 1954 by The Governor General Malik Ghulam Muhammad. Politicians, in the eyes of Governor General, were not only untrustworthy, they were crass opportunists who were too eager to feather their individual nests at the expense of national needs. Though, Pakistan was facing grave challenges since its inception like majority of the people were illiterate and without any political experience, and their deep-rooted religious sentiments could be easily exploited by unscrupulous persons and self-seekers and lingual-cum-cultural issues between East and West Pakistan, economic grievances, provincial autonomy. In the shadow of these subjects Pakistan legislatives bodies were unable to draft a constitution for Pakistan. Especially, working growth in terms of
legislation was very slow and that was a considerable stumbling block in development and progress. Despite all these concerns Pakistan’s government was trying to disentangle things slowly and steadily but power politics between politicians and civil-military axis led this to vanish. Meanwhile, this study will research the second constituent assembly’s working growth and development of legislature in Pakistan.

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On the direction of the Chairman Senate/President PIPS Board of Governors, the Pakistan Institute for Parliamentary Services (PIPS), has implemented a comprehensive set of measures aimed at ensuring fiscal discipline, operational efficiency, and responsible utilization of public resources, on the same lines as notified and adopted by the Senate and National Assembly Secretariats.

Under the new measures, the Institute has adopted a four-day working week (Monday to Thursday), while introducing a hybrid working model whereby 50% of staff will perform duties from the office and 50% will work remotely on a rotational basis. Employees working from home will remain fully accessible through digital communication platforms and may be required to report to the office on short notice, ensuring uninterrupted institutional functioning.

Significant steps have also been taken to promote energy conservation. These include a target of achieving up to 70% reduction in energy consumption through minimizing unnecessary use of electricity and ensuring that official meetings, trainings, and events are scheduled during daylight hours. Foreign tours are banned and international meetings are being held virtually.

In the transport section, PIPS has introduced strict measures to curtail expenditure and 70% official vehicles have been grounded as part of this initiative.

As part of broader austerity efforts, 20% reduction has been imposed on the non-ERE budget for the fourth quarter of the current financial year. The officers drawing a monthly salary of PKR 300,000 or more, shall surrendered two days salary or 5% to 30% salary on gross as per Federal Government decision.

The Institute has also discontinued all non-essential procurements with immediate effect. Official functions such as dinners and receptions will not be hosted, except in the case of visiting foreign delegations, and even then, strictly in accordance with austerity protocols.

These measures have been implemented with immediate effect and will remain in force until further orders.

Under the guidance of President PIPS Board of Governors, Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani, PIPS remains fully committed to maintaining its core functions of parliamentary support, capacity building, and research while contributing proactively to national austerity and sustainability goals.