In September 1954, the Constituent Assembly adopted The Government of India (Fifth Amendment) Bill, 1954. Through this bill, the Assembly amended sections 9, 10A, 10B, and 17 of Government of India Act 1935 as adopted by Pakistan as its interim constitution. While moving the amendment motion, Muhammad Hashim Gazdar said that in the new constitution, the Assembly empowered the governor general to appoint a prime minister who enjoyed the confidence of the majority in the House and to appoint ministers on the recommendation of the prime minister. Similarly, all the ministers were to be collectively responsible to the House and in case of no confidence vote all of them would cease to hold office. He said that he wanted these principles to be incorporated in the present constitution as well.
The enforcement of these amendments would have deprived the governor general of his powers to dismiss governments. As the Assembly had adopted the basic principles of the future constitution as the task of drafting the constitution was assigned to experts with the end of the year as the deadline, the Assembly was adjourned for more than a month.
Another major development that took place simultaneously was that the Constituent Assembly repealed PRODA which had been enacted in 1949, when Liaqat Ali Khan was Prime Minister and had been used several times since then.
These major legal and constitutional changes deeply infuriated Governor General Ghulam Muhammad. The Assembly session had already been adjourned while prime minister Muhammad Ali Bogra was on an official visit to the US. It was in these circumstances that the governor general sent an emergency message to the prime minister to cut his visit short and return home. The prime minister obeyed the instructions. The governor general also made sure that the prime minister is not seen by a delegation of the Constituent Assembly which traveled to London to brief the prime minister about Malik Ghulam Muhamamd’s intentions of dissolving the Assembly.
The prime minister reached Karachi on 23rd October and was taken to Governor House from the airport. The next day, 24th October 1954 the governor general dissolved the Assembly, an action many scholars attribute to collusion between senior military and civilian officers. In his proclamation, the governor general stated;
“The Governor-General, having considered the political crisis with which the country is faced, has with deep regret come to conclusion that the constitutional machinery has broken down. He, therefore, has decided to declare a state of emergency throughout Pakistan. The Constituent Assembly as at present constituted had lost the confidence of the people and can no longer function. The ultimate authority vests in the people who will decide all issues including constitutional issues through their representatives to be elected afresh. Elections will be held as early as possible.”
Interestingly, he did not categorically say that the Assembly had been dissolved. Instead, he said it can no longer function. Similarly, the governor general did not cite any specific constitutional or legal provision under which the dissolution order was issued. Though the Constituent Assembly was dissolved, the prime minister was asked to continue in his position with a reconstituted cabinet which also included Ayub Khan, the then Commander-in-Chief of Pakistan Army as defense minister. People who were not members of the Assembly were also included in the cabinet.
The Molvi Tamizuddin Case
Following the dissolution of the Constituent Assembly, Molvi Tamizuddin Khan decided to challenge it in a court of law. As his residence in Karachi was heavily guarded and leaving his residence was difficult for him, he went out from the backdoor in disguise and reached Sindh Chief Court. He filed the petition through Advocate Manzer-e-Alam Khan on 7th November 1954. Reportedly, Molvi Tamizuddin was persuaded and threatened by several people including ministers, but he refused to back out.
Molvi Tamizuddin’s pleas before the court was that;
- The Governor General had no legal and constitutional grounds for issuing proclamation of emergency and dissolution of the Assembly,
- Neither had the Assembly ceased to function nor had the constitutional machinery broken down,
- The laws passed by the Assembly did not require governor general’s assent, and
- Only members of the Assembly could be appointed as ministers on the recommendation of the prime minister.
The government responded by arguing that;
- The governor general had legal authority to dissolve the Constituent Assembly,
- Bills passed by the Assembly required assent of the governor general, and
- The Sindh Chief Court did not possess authority to issue writs.
Both sides argued their points vigorously. The four-member bench, comprising Chief Justice George Constantine, Justice Muhammad Bachal, Justice Vellani, and Justice M. Bakhsh A. Memon unanimously decided in favor of Molvi Tamizuddin Khan.
Appeal against the decision
The government appealed to the Federal Court against the Sindh Chief Court’s judgment. A five-member bench of the Federal Court comprising Chief Justice Muhammad Munir, Justice A. S. Akram, Justice A. R. Cornelius, Justice Muhammad Sharif, and Justice S. A. Rahman heard the appeal. The judgement was announced on 21 March 1955, and the court ruled in the government’s favor by a majority of four to one. It reversed the Sindh Chief Court’s judgment on technical grounds without going into the question of whether the governor general had the power to dissolve the Assembly or not. Justice A. R. Cornelius dissented from the majority opinion.
The verdict was followed by a long series of judicial orders and references. Finally, the Second Constituent Assembly was constituted under the Governor-General’s Order No. XII of 1955 issued on 28 May 1955. This Order provided for the constitution of an 80-member Second Constituent Assembly. Of the 80 members, 70 were elected by the respective provincial legislatures on 21 June 1955. The method of election or nomination of members from each unit is given in the table below.
| Province/State | Seats | Election/nomination method |
| East Bengal | 40 | Provincial Legislature |
| Punjab | 21 | Provincial Legislature |
| Sindh | 5 | Provincial Legislature |
| NWFP | 4 | Provincial Legislature |
| Balochistan | 1 | Members of the Shahi Jirga and the non-official members of the Quetta Municipality |
| Baluchistan States Union | 1 | Council of Rulers of Baluchistan States Union |
| Bahawalpur State | 2 | Ruler of Bahawalpur State |
| Khairpur State | 1 | members of the Legislative Assembly |
| Frontier States (Dir, Swat, Amb, and the Regent of Chitral State) | 1 | Rulers of the States of Swat, Dir and Amb and the Regent of Chitral State |
| Tribal Areas | 3 | Tribal Advisory Council |
| Karachi | 1 | members of the Municipal Corporation of the City of Karachi |
| Total | 80 |
The first session of the Assembly took place on 7 July 1955. Some important legislative measures passed by the Assembly included Validation of Laws Act 1955, the One Unit Scheme 1955, and the Constitution of 1965. In framing the constitution, it greatly benefited from the work already done by the First Constituent Assembly.
As no single party had won a simple majority in the Second Constituent Assembly, the Muslim League which has won the highest number of seats (25) and the United Front, which had won the second-highest number of seats (16) formed a coalition with Chaudhary Muhammad Ali elected as the prime minister in August 1955.