Islamabad, July 13, 2023 (PPI-OT): The constitution of Pakistan, 1973 embodies national consensus by documenting and defining the national identity and character. The national confidence in the apex law has given it the resilience to survive several adventures. Defining the national character and characteristics, it responds to the requirements and aspirations of the ethnic, linguistic, cultural, religious, and parochial cross-section of society. As a federal and parliamentary constitution, it strives to maintain a balance between all constituent units and segments of society through political representation and fiscal management. A thorough scheme for division of powers defines the exclusive domains as well as mutual relations and dependence of the major organs of the state. These mechanisms are elaborate enough to be practical but flexible enough to allow necessary improvisation.
Unfortunately, the deliberate flexibility as well as the explicit instructions have been sacrificed for short-term critical gains by successive governments. The balance of power has remained dwindling between different stake holders. This has hampered progress and disturbed national cohesion on many levels. On completion of 50 years of the Constitution of Pakistan in 2023, there is a need to deliberate the next 50 years with a futuristic vision and focus on better governance, inclusive policies, and synergized frameworks.
The Constitution of Pakistan, 1973 was passed by the Parliament on April 10, and it came into force on August 14. To commemorate the golden jubilee of the apex law of the country, the Institute of Policy Studies Islamabad (IPS) is holding an international conference on the above subject. The hybrid conference shall bring together the law experts and practitioners on important constitutional themes. The themes and sub-themes of the conference are centered on legal, socio-political, and governance dimensions related to the political representation, center-province relations, civil-military relations, and legislature-judiciary relations.
Themes and sub-themes
Constitution and National Integration
Basic structure
Supremacy of law
Social and cultural inclusion
Scope and domain of Fundamental Rights and the Principles of Policy
Constitutional amendments and their impact
Democracy and Public Representation
Current political structure and its effectiveness
Alternative schemes for effective political representation
Participation of minorities and other segments in political process
Relations between Center and Provinces
Provincial autonomy and national integration
Distribution of legislative and Administrative powers
Economic relations and division of financial resource
Civil-Military Relations in a Democratic Pakistan
Constitutional scheme of civil-military relations in Pakistan
Experiments for institutionalizing civil-military relations
Models of civil-military relations from around the world
Legislation and Interpretation: Achieving Balance between Legislature and Judiciary
Legislative mandate of Parliament and judicial review
Legislation through adjudication
Judicial appointments and parliamentary oversight
Operationalizing the Constitution: The Role of Executive
The role and mandate of the executive in the constitutional scheme
Executive and the question of political neutrality
Bureaucracy and the grassroots democratic institutions
Scope and limits of subordinate legislation
On each theme, a constitutional expert shall be invited to make a keynote speech. Apart from it, papers contributed by academics, practitioners, scholars, and students shall be included after peer review.
Guidelines for submission:
All contributions should be written as research papers in English language.
Contributors shall submit an undertaking to affirm the originality of the content and that it has not already been submitted elsewhere for consideration.
Papers that are not clearly falling under a theme/sub-theme shall not be entertained. The approach and expression has to be academic.
The abstracts and papers should be submitted in MS Word format as well as pdf formats.
The length of the abstract should be from 250-300 words. The paper length should range from 3500-5000 words.
Spellings and punctuation should be used in American English (e.g. organize, center, Defense). Commas and periods should be given inside closing quotation marks. Longer quotations should be indented and set off from the text, and given in smaller font size, without quotation marks.
Dates should be written as May 20, 2020. Abbreviations should be given in brackets after giving the full form on first use, e.g., United Nations (UN). Subsequently, UN should be used throughout the text.
Chicago Manual of Style (CMOS) 16th Edition should be followed for endnotes. Main words in the titles of articles, books and journals should begin with capital letters. Titles of Books, Journals, Newspapers should be italicized. Reports should be cited like books. In case of multiple authors, give the names of all the authors in the endnotes. Examples of citations in CMOS16 are given below:
For more information, contact:
Outreach and Publications,
Institute of Policy Studies (IPS)
1, Street 8, F-6/3, Islamabad, Pakistan
Tel: +92-51-8438391-3 (Ext: 122)
Fax: +92-51-8438390
Website: www.ips.org.pk