Report of the Basic Principles committee (1952 )

The Basic Principles Committee was established on 12th March 1949 by Khawaja Nazimuddin on the instruction of Prime Minister
Liaquat Ali Khan. This committee had 24 members and was headed by Khawaja Nazimuddin and Liaquat Khan was its vice
president. This committee presented its first report in 1950 but was severely criticized, particularly in East Pakistan so it referred
back to the Constituent Assembly. At that time sub-committees were also appointed for public suggestions and these sub-
committees made their reports and presented them to the Basic Principles Committee which then presented the final and complete
report to the Constituent Assembly in 1952. The report was revised before an agreement could be reached in the Constituent
Assembly. The prominent features of the report were:

 The Objective Resolution was adopted as a preamble to the proposed constitution and its principles were to guide the
state. Another important clause was that which laid down procedure to prevent any legislation to be made against the
Quran and Sunnah.
 The Head of the State should be a Muslim and elected by the both Houses of the federal legislature for a term of 5 years.
 Seats were also allocated for communities in the House of People.
 Word unit was specified for all provinces, capital, and federations. The head of these units was to be selected for a term of
5 years.
 The formula gave weightage to the smaller units of West Pakistan. Federal legislature comprised of two Houses, House of
Units consisted of 120 members. The East Bengal legislature was to elect 60 members according to the principle of
proportional representation and the rest of the members were to be elected from the west by the same rule. The House of
People had real authority and comprised of 400 members, 200 from West and 200 from East Pakistan.
 Chief Minister of each unit and minister were appointed by the Head of that unit and ministers for each unit would be
chosen by the Chief Minister.
 When the federal legislature was not in session, the Head of the State could promulgate ordinances. The Head of the
State could dissolve the House of People on the advice or counsel of the minister.
 Chief justice of the Supreme Court would be appointed by the Head of the State and other 6 judges would also be
appointed by the Head of the State by the recommendations of the Chief Justice.
 Guarantees were also given to the civil servants of the federation and units against the dismissal, and reduction in the
rank without an opportunity to showcases.

But the second and final report of the Basic Principles Committee was not received too well. The report was criticized because of
these defects:

 The draft ignored the fact that East Bengal contained the majority of the population of the country and West Pakistan had
a major part of the country’s territory.
 The draft made the lower house a weak replica of the House of People and reduced its utility. It also made no provision if
both houses were unable to resolve the conflict in a joint session.

Like the first report, this was also criticized but this time criticism arose from Punjab which considered the federal formula to be
defective. They demanded equal representation for various units in the lower house and equal power for both Houses. The Punjab
members in the Basic Principles Committee and the Federal Cabinet disliked the formula because they felt East Pakistan would
easily dominate West Pakistan which had been divided into nine units.

Religious leaders were also not satisfied with the Islamic character of the recommended constitution especially with regards to their
demand for the declaration of Ahmadis as non-Muslims. In July 1952 during the All Pakistan Muslim Parties Convention held at
Lahore a demand was put forward for the removal of Ahmadis from the key posts including Zafarullah Khan who was the Foreign
Minister.  Although Nazaimuddin sympathized with the demand he refused to incorporate them in the Basic Principles Committee
report. (historypak.com)

Bogra Formula

When Muhammad Ali Bogra became the Prime Minister of Pakistan, the main task ahead of him was to achieve an
agreement on a workable constitution for the country. He worked hard on this project and within six months of
assuming power, came out with a constitutional formula. He presented the formula to the Constituent Assembly on
7  October 1953 and it is known as the Bogra formula.  The major features of the formula were:
th

 The federal legislature would comprise of two houses – the House of Unit and the House of People. The
total strength of the House of Units would be 50, which was to be equally divided among five units namely,
East Bengal, Punjab, NWFP, Frontier States, Sindh and Khairpur, Balochistan. The House of Units would be
elected indirectly by the legislature of the units. The Bogra formula reduced the 9 units of West Pakistan into
4 units.
  The House of People was to have a total number of three hundred members, to be divided among the five
units in this manner – East Bengal 165 members, Punjab 75, NWFP 13, Sindh 19, State of Khairpur 1,
Balochistan 3, and Bahawalpur State 7.
 Both Houses were to have equal powers in all matters. There was a provision for a joint session of the two
for the election of the Head of the State and the disposal of votes of confidence.
 In case of a difference of opinion between the two Houses, a joint session of the two Houses would be
called and the matter would be decided by a majority vote, provided that the majority included thirty percent
of the members from each zone.
 It maintained the principle of parity between East and West Pakistan in combined Houses, with 175 seats for
each zone. So in total, both the wings were to have 175 seats each in the two Houses of the Legislative
Assembly.
 In place of the Board of Ulama, the Supreme Court was given the power to decide if a law was in
accordance with the basic teachings of the Holy Quran and Sunnah.
 The two houses of the Legislative Assembly formed the Electoral College for the Presidential elections and
the President was to be elected for a term of 5 years

This proposal was received with great enthusiasm however, there were some points of criticism as well. The issue of
equal powers to both Houses attracted a lot of criticism and some people maintained that since the lower house
represented the people it should have more power. But generally, this proposal was accepted although the
parliament was divided on the response to the formula. Another significant measure during this period that facilitated
the problem of constitution-making was the settlement of the language issue. In 1954 the Constituent Assembly of
Pakistan decided that Bengali and Urdu would be the national languages of Pakistan. This decision facilitated the
constitution-making process.

Unlike the two reports of the Basic Principles Committee, the Bogra Formula was appreciated by different sections of
the society. There was great enthusiasm amongst the masses as they considered it to be a plan that could bridge the
gulf between the two wings of Pakistan and would act as a source of unity for the country. The proposal was
discussed in the Constituent Assembly for 13 days, and a committee was set to draft the constitution on
14  November 1953. However, before the constitution could be finalized, the Assembly was dissolved by Ghulam
th

Muhammad, the then Governor-General of Pakistan.