A senior advocate of the Supreme Court and a former president of the Supreme Court Bar Association, Hamid Khan not only recounts events as part of a clinical narrative of history but also attempts to create a context that explicates the current state of affairs.

As a prologue of sorts, the book begins with an account of the politico-legal landscape of undivided India during British rule. The author charts the political and administrative set-up at the time and Pakistan's steady march toward independence in that backdrop. The opening is of ample thematic significance as Pakistan's independence movement was fundamentally, if not strictly, political in nature.

After independence the Government of India Act 1935, with certain revisions, was made Pakistan's working constitution. In the meantime, the country's Constituent Assembly was assigned the task of preparing a national constitution.

At the time, Pakistan was tackling the refugee crisis and Mohammad Ali Jinnah's death had led to a leadership vacuum that Liaquat Ali Khan tried to fill. Meanwhile the dispute over Kashmir had also taken an international dimension.

As Pakistan was confronting these issues in its nascent years, the Constituent Assembly passed the Objectives Resolution in 1949 as a prelude to the Constitution. This document laid down the principle that Pakistan's constitution will essentially have an Islamic character and it will not entirely be modelled on the pattern of European democracies.

The author catalogues the various amendments proposed to the Resolution and the objections raised regarding its 'religious basis.' However, none of these amendments were adopted even though some of them were, as the author says, 'quite reasonable and moderate.'

Liaquat Ali Khan's subsequent assassination was another loss to the emerging state in need of dedicated leadership. Complications furthered when the first Constituent Assembly's life was cut short by the new Governor-General, Ghulam Mohammad, just before it could finish its work.

This was done primarily because the Constituent Assembly tried to 'curb the undemocratic and arbitrary powers' of his office. Ghulam Mohammad also proclaimed a state of emergency in the name of 'supreme national interest.'

This situation led to the Maulvi Tamizuddin Khan case which challenged the Assembly's dissolution by the Governor-General. The Supreme Court validated Ghulam Mohammad's action. And it was these events that, the author states, led to the birth of the notorious 'establishment' in which the country's military and civil bureaucracy, as opposed to its elected officials, maintained influence over the affairs of the state.

The author goes on to methodically discuss the 1956, 1965 and 1973 constitutions and the circumstances under which various governments and coup d'états abrogated them.

But while there is detail, the book tends to have some dull and slow moments, which may still be interesting to students of law and jurisprudence. However, it is precisely these details that make this account comprehensive and wide-ranging.

Also, the narrative is fundamentally guided by a documentation of history as opposed to simply being a subjective commentary on Pakistani politics.

The author has discussed particular cases and events that have had a bearing on national politics. From the Maulvi Tamizuddin Khan case to the reference against Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, the author highlights the disturbing, if not threatening, role played by supposedly apolitical forces in manipulating the state's political apparatus.

These forces are also cited with respect to important incidents, the most recent one being the assassination of former premier Benazir Bhutto.

Discussing the politicians and military men who governed Pakistan across its chequered history, the author looks at their individual eccentricities and limitations which may have led to setbacks in their political careers. Reproving the politicians for not learning from history, the author blames them for pushing the country 'deeper and deeper into the morass of uncertainty and insecurity.'

Emphasis also falls on the role of the judiciary and its disposition since 1947 along with the pressures it has endured at the hands of various regimes. The author builds up on this premise to reveal how the rule of law has been undermined by the governments themselves, a factor that has had a crucial role in shaping the country's current law and order situation.

The author concludes by turning to issues that he says the state's law-making body and
political parties need to tackle without delay.

And in this context while no one has been spared criticism, it is the political role of the establishment that comes under heavy scrutiny so much so that the author holds the army and the civil bureaucracy responsible for much of the 'political instability and constitutional floundering' in Pakistan.

The author has suggested solutions for the issues that Pakistan has experienced and theoretically explains how to arrive at them under the democratic government now in place.

However, having learnt little from our past and given the current turmoil, the reality of accomplishing political stability seems rather distant.

Constitutional and Political History of Pakistan
By Hamid Khan
Oxford University Press, Karachi
ISBN 978-0-19-547474-9
812pp. Rs1,295