THIS is with reference to the report ‘President gives assent to 27th Amendment after Senate nod’ (Nov 14). Pakistan now stands shoulder to shoulder with the United States. The people of Pakistan no longer need to dream of a US green card or citizenship, for in one field at least we are now truly at par with the US — and are on course to even surpass it at some stage. That field, however, is not technology, economy, or education. It is far more sacred, sensitive and vital: the Constitution.

The US Constitution was written back in 1787, was ratified in 1788, and became operational in 1789 when New Hampshire became the ninth state to adopt it. In the last 237 years, the US has made 27 amendments to that founding document — each carefully debated, weighed and passed after broad consensus. Pakistan has reached the same number in a mere 52 years; more than 4.5 times the pace at which the US could achieve the ‘milestone’. And, these 52 years do not include the many years when the Constitution was suspended.

The 1973 Constitution was a rare moment of national unity. Unanimously passed by all political parties on April 10, 1973, it was hailed by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, the then prime minister, as a document born of consensus — a reflection of Islamic, federal and democratic principles, and a continuation of Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah’s vision. However, just four years later, on July 5, 1977, that same Constitution was suspended by the martial law regime. What followed is a bitter constitutional history — one in which the supreme law of the land became a plaything in the hands of individuals and regimes. Abraham Lincoln, the man who famously explained democracy as a government ‘of the people, by the people, for the people’, had once cautioned US legislators against interfering ‘with anything’ in the Constitution. “That must be maintained, for it is the only safeguard of our liberties,” he had said. We seem to be in need of paying heed to such a warning.

Aamir Aqil
Lahore

Published in Dawn, November 16th, 2025