The Objectives Resolution was the first constitutional document that proved to be the ‘foundation’ of the constitutional developments in Pakistan. It provided parameters and sublime principles to the legislators. It made the constitution-making process easy task setting some particular objectives before them that would be acceptable to the people of Pakistan who had suffered a lot under the Hindu-dominated majority. The Resolution was moved by Liaquat Ali Khan, the then Prime Minister of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, and approved on March 12, 1949.
The Constituent Assembly (1947-54)
First, we will take up the first aspect that is the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan. We are briefly talking about the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan because it was this first constituent Assembly of Pakistan that passed the OR of March 1949. The first Constituent Assembly came into existence under Indian Independence Act 1947at the time of independence; however its roots can be traced back to the 1946 when the elections for the constituent assembly for United India were held in July 1946 to decide the destiny of the All India Muslim League (AIML)’s claim that it is the only representative party of the Indian Muslims that desire separate homeland, Pakistan. The Constituent Assembly held its first meeting on 9th, December 1946. The ML did not participate in the elections because it demanded separate Constituent Assembly for Pakistan.
When Indian Independence Act came in July, 1947 in the light of the June 3rd Plan, the First Constituent Assembly came into existence; it comprised the members of the old Constituent Assembly from the Districts that became part of Pakistan. Originally there were 69 members but later on 10 more members were gradually inducted in order to provide representation to the princely states that had exceeded to Pakistan and also to people who had migrated to Pakistan from India. So its strength went up to 79 but actually it was less than that because some members’ dies and some members left for India so its actual strength went down slightly from 79. In this Constituent Assembly there were two major political parties, The ML which had led the movement for the establishment for Pakistan. The other major party although much smaller than the ML was the Congress party and its members were from East Pakistan at that time. There were also couple of other members who were not part of ML, however these two political parties were significant especially the ML.
Functions of the Assembly:
This constituent assembly performed two functions, the first function was constitution making, so it would at that time act as the constituent assembly,
And the 2nd function which it performed was Law Making which means that it would also make ordinary laws for the state of Pakistan,
So in other words it was performing 2 functions constitution making when it was called as constituent assembly and when it is performing the function of law making then it was called as the legislative assembly but the title was the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan. It is this Constituent Assembly that passed the OR that we are going to discuss very soon.