Pakistan Affairs MCQs – Page 17 (Q161-170)

Benazir Bhutto was assassinated in Rawalpindi, at Liaquat Bagh, the same park where Pakistan's first Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan had been assassinated in 1951, an eerie historical parallel. The attack occurred on 27 December 2007 as she left a Pakistan Peoples Party rally ahead of the general elections. Rawalpindi has long held major political and military significance, serving as army headquarters and briefly as Pakistan's interim capital before Islamabad's completion. Her death triggered nationwide unrest and a sympathy vote that carried the PPP, then led by Asif Ali Zardari, to victory in the 2008 elections.

The lawyers' movement for restoration of the judiciary began in 2007, sparked by President Pervez Musharraf's suspension of Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry in March that year on charges widely seen as politically motivated. Lawyers, civil society activists and opposition politicians launched mass protests and long marches demanding the judiciary's independence, turning the movement into a broader campaign against military rule. Musharraf's subsequent imposition of emergency rule in November 2007 further inflamed the protests, deepening his political isolation. The movement ultimately succeeded when the restored democratic government reinstated Chaudhry as Chief Justice in March 2009, cementing judicial independence as a major achievement of Pakistan's civil society.

The National Finance Commission (NFC) Award distributes financial resources between the federal and provincial governments, determining each province's share of centrally collected taxes based on a formula that has historically weighted population heavily. The most significant recent award, the 7th NFC Award of 2009, increased the provinces' overall share substantially and, for the first time, incorporated criteria beyond population, including poverty, revenue collection and inland area. NFC awards are constitutionally mandated to be reviewed periodically, though disagreements between provinces, particularly over the population-based formula favouring Punjab, have often delayed new awards. The mechanism plays a central role in Pakistan's fiscal federalism, especially following the increased provincial autonomy granted by the 18th Amendment.

The Muslim League held its historic 1940 annual session, where the Pakistan Resolution was passed, in Lahore, at Minto Park (now Iqbal Park) on 23 March 1940. The resolution, moved by Bengali leader A.K. Fazlul Huq and presided over by Muhammad Ali Jinnah, called for independent states for Muslims in British India's northwestern and eastern zones. This session marked a decisive shift in the League's political demands, from earlier calls for minority safeguards to an outright demand for separate statehood. The date is commemorated annually in Pakistan as Pakistan Day, marked by a national holiday and a military parade in Islamabad.

Fatima Jinnah is popularly known by the title Madar-e-Millat, meaning 'Mother of the Nation', in recognition of her lifelong devotion to the Pakistan Movement and her close political partnership with her brother, Muhammad Ali Jinnah. A trained dentist, she gave up her practice to support Jinnah throughout his political career, accompanying him at major events and serving as a close advisor during Pakistan's founding years. After Jinnah's death in 1948, she remained a respected public figure and later challenged Ayub Khan in the 1965 presidential election as the united opposition's candidate. She died in 1967 and is buried near her brother at Mazar-e-Quaid in Karachi.

Fatima Jinnah contested the presidential election against Ayub Khan in 1965, running as the candidate of the Combined Opposition Parties under the indirect Basic Democracies electoral system established by Ayub's 1962 constitution. Despite widespread popular support, particularly in urban centres and East Pakistan, she lost the election amid allegations of vote-rigging and misuse of state machinery by the incumbent government. The campaign nonetheless demonstrated significant public discontent with Ayub Khan's rule, foreshadowing the unrest that eventually forced him from power in 1969. Fatima Jinnah, revered as Madar-e-Millat for her role in the independence movement, remained a respected opposition figure until her death in 1967.

The Objectives Resolution was moved in the Constituent Assembly by Liaquat Ali Khan, Pakistan's first Prime Minister, in March 1949, setting out the foundational principles intended to guide the country's future constitutions. It declared that sovereignty over the universe belongs to Allah alone, and that the state would exercise authority through elected representatives within limits prescribed by Islam, while also guaranteeing fundamental rights and safeguards for minorities. The resolution was later incorporated as a preamble to Pakistan's 1956, 1962 and 1973 constitutions, and made a substantive operative part of the constitution through the Eighth Amendment in 1985. It remains a central reference point in ongoing debates over Pakistan's identity as an Islamic republic.

The first Constituent Assembly of Pakistan was formed in 1947, immediately after independence, tasked with both drafting the country's constitution and functioning as its interim federal legislature. It was composed largely of members elected earlier to British India's Constituent Assembly from constituencies that became part of Pakistan, with Muhammad Ali Jinnah serving as its first president. This assembly passed the Objectives Resolution in 1949 but struggled for years to agree on a constitution amid disputes over provincial representation and the role of Islam. It was ultimately dissolved by Governor-General Ghulam Muhammad in 1954, a controversial move later upheld by the courts under the 'doctrine of necessity'.

The second Constituent Assembly of Pakistan was formed in 1955, convened after the controversial dissolution of the first assembly by Governor-General Ghulam Muhammad in October 1954. Unlike the first assembly, whose dissolution was challenged in court by its president Maulvi Tamizuddin Khan, this new body was formed through indirect elections by the provincial assemblies under a revised composition. It succeeded in completing the long-delayed task of drafting Pakistan's first constitution, promulgated on 23 March 1956, which declared the country an Islamic Republic. Chaudhry Muhammad Ali, then Prime Minister, played a key role in steering the constitution through this assembly to its final adoption.

Iran is commonly credited as the first country to formally recognise Pakistan's independence in 1947, reflecting the close historical, religious and cultural ties between the two neighbouring Muslim-majority states. The two countries went on to build a close relationship in subsequent decades, including joint membership of the Central Treaty Organization (CENTO) and later the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO), founded alongside Turkey in 1985. Iran also provided crucial support to Pakistan during periods of tension with India, including offering refuelling facilities during the 1965 war. Despite periodic strains over sectarian and regional issues in later decades, Pakistan and Iran have generally maintained cooperative diplomatic relations rooted in this early recognition.