THE Constitution of Pakistan in palpable terms, accords ‘precedence’ to a province, where the ‘well-head’ of natural gas is situated, so as to meet its requirements from that ‘well-head’ before gas can be transmitted to other provinces. Alas, this constitutional dictum has invariably been passed over.

Not all constitutions deal with hydrocarbons. Among the oldest effective written constitutions are the constitutions of the US (1789), Norway (1814), the Netherlands (1815), Belgium (1831) and Luxembourg (1868), all spectacularly silent on oil and gas, though they bespeak of other natural resources. This silence has an explanation; the ‘Fredonia gas well’ or the first ‘gas-well’ only started production in 1825. Conversely, the ‘Oil Springs’ in Ontario and ‘Drake oil well’ in Pennsylvania, the ‘first oil wells’ started production as late as 1858 and 1859 respectively. By the turn of the 20th century, the primary mode of transport in London, Paris, Berlin, Moscow and New York was still the horse-drawn carriage.

Thus, only constitutions which succeed the construction of the oil refinery and invention of the diesel engine attend to oil and gas in any meaningful way, such as Pakistan’s Constitution. One way in which our Constitution........

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