After assuming charge as Prime Minister, Chaudhry Muhammad Ali, along with his team, worked day and night in order to give Pakistan a constitution. Due to his efforts, Pakistan’s status as a dominion finished and the country was declared an Islamic Republic on March 23, 1956, when the first constitution was enforced in the country. With this the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan became interim National Assembly and Governor General Iskandar Mirza was sworn in as the first President of Pakistan.

The Constitution of 1956 consisted of 234 articles, which were divided into 13 parts and 6 schedules. According to this Constitution Pakistan was named as Islamic Republic of Pakistan and one of the main features of the Constitution was its Islamic character. The Islamic provisions were contained in the directive principles of the State policy. Along with other Islamic provisions in the Constitution, the president, who was required to be a Muslim with age not less than 40 years, was to set up an organization for Islamic research with the aim to establish a true Islamic society. However, Objectives resolution was only made the preamble of the Constitution and was not included in its main text.

The constitution vested the executive authority of the president in the Federation. The President had the discretionary powers to make the appointment of the chairman and members of the Election Commission, Delimitation Commission and Public Service Commission. He also had the power to appoint Prime Minister from amongst the members of the National Assembly. However his appointee has to take the vote of confidence from the assembly with in two months. The President also had the power to remove the Prime Minister if he feels that the Prime Minister had lost the confidence of the majority members of the National Assembly.

The Constitution of 1956 provided for the parliamentary form of government with uni-cameral legislature. The only house of the parliament, National Assembly, was to consist of 300 members. As the concept of one unit was there in the Constitution, the seats were divided equally between both the wings of the country. Thus the principle of parity was introduced. For the first ten years five additional seats were reserved for women from each of the wings. National Assembly was to meet at least twice a year with at least one session at Dhaka. The Constitution offered direct elections under adult franchise. Every citizen of Pakistan with minimum age of 21 was allowed to vote in the elections.

The Constitution provided for the federal form of government in the country. The provincial structure was similar to that at the center. Pattern for the center-province relations was the same as it was in the Government of India Act 1935. There were federal, provincial and concurrent list of subjects. There were thirty items in the federal list, ninety-four items in the provincial list and nineteen items in the concurrent list. The federal legislation was to get precedence over provincial legislation regarding concurrent list. Residuary powers were vested in the provinces. In case of a conflict between center and provinces or between the two provinces, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court was to act as the mediator.

The Constitution of 1956 was a written and flexible Constitution. It advocated for the fundamental rights of the individuals. However, the President had the power to suspend these rights in case of emergency. Judiciary was to remain independent. Urdu and Bengali both were accepted as State languages while English was to remain official language for the first twenty-five years. After ten years of the passage of the Constitution, the President was to appoint a commission with the task to make recommendation for the replacement of English as the official language.