Country's interest to hold the provincial elections soon after the elections to the National Assembly.
The main reason for this is that it will facilitate and speed up the transfer of power to the elected representatives as soon as the Constitution is finalized. Further, it will relieve the politicians and their parties from a new election campaign immediately after the business of Constitution-making is over. I consider that once the constitutional issues are settled, our leaders should address themselves to the major nation-building tasks rather than entering into a fresh round of electioneering.
Taking all these factors into consideration, 1 have decided that provincial elections will be held not later than the 22nd October. 1970. The Provincial Assemblies would, however, start functioning when duly summoned after the Constitution has been framed and authenticated by me.
When the Legal Framework Order, 1970, is published you will notice that in the schedule dealing with the Rules of Procedure the voting procedure for the National Assembly has not been included. This is a matter which is best settled by the House itself and it is my earnest hope that there would not be too much divergence in views on this issue. Unanimity would of course be ideal in any case I do not personally like to talk on this subject on the basis of percentages.
The point that I made earlier and would like to emphasize again is that a Constitution is not an ordinary piece of legislation, but it is an agreement to live together. It is therefore essential that all regions are reasonably satisfied with the voting procedure that may be evolved by the House, because unless they are so satisfied, the Constitution will not really and genuinely be acceptable to the people of different provinces and regions as such a document should be. I am sure it should be possible to arrive at some suitable arrangement.
The Legal Framework Order does not only state how the Assembly will come into being, what its strength would be, and such other matters relating to the setting up of this Assembly, but it also lays down certain basic principles for the future Constitution of Pakistan. Most of these principles are based on previous Constitutions, but I thought it necessary to highlight some of these in the Order so that the Assembly makes a constitution which is acceptable to the people of Pakistan as a whole.
Firstly, the Order lays down that the Constitution of Pakistan must preserve Islamic ideology which, as we all know, was the basis of the creation of Pakistan.
Secondly, the Constitution must ensure independence, territorial integrity and national solidarity of Pakistan. In order to attain these objectives it has been laid down in the Legal Framework Order that the territories now and hereafter included in Pakistan must be united in a federal union which must preserve the territorial unity of the State of Pakistan which will be called the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.
The third fundamental Principle of the future Constitution is that it must be a democratic one in which such basic ingredients of democracy as free and periodical
