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Full sixty years ago in March 1949 the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan adopted the Objectives Resolution. The aim was to spell out the basic purposes that would provide guidelines for making the constitution of the new-born state. The Resolution, since its adoption, has virtually enjoyed national consensus in Pakistan. Although a number of constitutions were enacted and constitutional amendments adopted during the sixty years that followed the "Objectives Resolution" was unfailingly retained. This unanimity of support for the Resolution presumably owes itself to the fact that it enshrines, in quite a remarkable manner, the ideas and ideals that are deeply rooted in the hearts and minds of the people of Pakistan. This nuanced document also clearly enunciates the goals that the people of Pakistan wish to pursue. It also brings out in unambiguous terms what they share with the rest of humanity as well as what is distinctively integral to their collective identity.
We are publishing in the following pages the text of the Objectives Resolution1 as well as the speeches (or excerpts from them) made on that occasion by the mover of the Resolution Liaquat Ali Khan, the first Prime Minister of Pakistan, as well as by Mr Bhupendra Kumar Datta, a member of the opposition Congress Party; Dr Ishtiaq Hussain Qureshi, a distinguished academic and then a member of the Cabinet; Maulana Shabbir Ahmad Osmani, a celebrated religious scholar and Mian Iftikharuddin, the then most vocal spokesperson of the Left. The documents thus reflect the views of a whole range of leaders of public opinion in Pakistan at the time. Editor.
I
Liaquat Ali Khan2
The Prime Minister of Pakistan
Mr. President, Sir, I beg to move the following Objectives Resolution embodying the main principles on which the constitution of Pakistan is to be based:
"In the name of Allah, the Benificent, the Merciful;
Whereas sovereignty over the entire universe belongs to God Almighty alone and the authority which He has delegated to the State of Pakistan through its people for being exercised within the limit prescribed by Him is a sacred trust;
This Constituent Assembly representing the people of Pakistan resolves to frame a constitution for the sovereign independent State of Pakistan:
Wherein the State shall exercise its powers and...