Eighth Amendment To The Constitution of Pakistan - The Eighth Amendment As A Compromise

The Eighth Amendment As A Compromise

In general discourse, the Eighth Amendment has become synonymous with Article 58 2(b), which in turn is considered to be the provision that introduced the presidential power to dissolve the National Assembly. However, the Eighth Amendment was in fact a compromise between the Parliament elected in the non-party elections of 1985 and then President Gen. Zia-ul-Haq. Prior to the 1985 election, over a period of 6 years, Gen. Zia-ul-Haq had already made numerous amendments to the Constitution of 1973 through various Constitution Amendment Orders, the most significant being the Revival of Constitution of 1973 Order (President's Order No. 14 of 1985). That Order had in fact granted to the President even more discretion in dissolving the National Assembly. Clause (2) added to Article 58 by that Order stated: "The President may also dissolve the National Assembly in his discretion where, in his opinion, an appeal to the electorate is necessary." Note that the test of the constitutional functioning of the government was not required for the President to dissolve the National Assembly.

It must also be stated that the Eighth Amendment also caused the elected Parliament to endorse all Orders made by Gen. Zia-ul-Haq by substituting the Article 270A introduced by President's Order No. 14 of 1985 by a slightly modified version, preserving the text declaring the validity of all of Gen. Zia's actions, including his takeover of July 5, 1977 and subsequent constitutional amendments.

It is not clear whether this explicit parliamentary approval was required for Gen. Zia's amendments to obtain legal validity, but it appears that Gen. Zia considered it desirable to obtain this approval and thus chose to compromise by watering down some of the presidential powers his amendments had granted.