ABSTRACT
In its 63-year independence Pakistan has had a very complicated and fluid constitutional history (see, e.g., Khan 2001 and Newberg 1995). It has had five formal constitutions, one inherited at independence (the Government of India Act of 1935, modified by the India Independence Act of 1947) and four indigenously crafted documents in 1956, 1962, 1972, and 1973. At times it has also operated without a written constitution (1958–62; 1969–71), under a ‘suspended’ constitution (1977–1985) and a ‘modified’ though ‘restored’ constitution (1985–97)—the last of which was significantly altered by the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment (1997–99).
