ON 19 November 1863, the US President Abraham Lincoln, while addressing a gathering at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania during the American Civil War, delivered his famous eulogy that ‘government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth’. Ever since, these words have become synonymous to democracy as the system of governance across the democratic world. The concept revolves around the word people. The people choose their representatives to form a government that is built on the pillars of human rights, equality, transparency, meritocracy, social justice, peace and security and efficient governance. People centric constitution works as the social contract between the government and the people. Older democracies seem to have matured their governance systems which could mainly be attributed to the unwavering political will, rule of law and perpetuality of electoral process, while the newer democracies are still struggling to reap the real benefits of democratic system.

Pakistan, building on the edifice of colonial masters, followed a bicameral democratic system. All the way along since independence, Pakistan has had a rollercoaster journey of democratic, authoritarian and hybrid systems and subsequent to trying a number of constitutions and legal framework orders, finally settled for the unanimously adopted constitution in 1973. Despite going through 27 constitutional amendments, the........

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