Call for Papers – The Constitution of Pakistan: Lessons for the Next 50 Years

Commemorating 50 Years of the Constitution of Pakistan

CALL FOR PAPERS

for hybrid conference on

The Constitution of Pakistan: Lessons for the Next 50 Years

The constitution of Pakistan, 1973 embodies national consensus by documenting and defining the national identity and character. The national confidence in the apex law has given it the resilience to survive several adventures. Defining the national character and characteristics, it responds to the requirements and aspirations of the ethnic, linguistic, cultural, religious, and parochial cross-section of society. As a federal and parliamentary constitution, it strives to maintain a balance between all constituent units and segments of society through political representation and fiscal management. A thorough scheme for division of powers defines the exclusive domains as well as mutual relations and dependence of the major organs of the state. These mechanisms are elaborate enough to be practical but flexible enough to allow necessary improvisation.

Unfortunately, the deliberate flexibility as well as the explicit instructions have been sacrificed for short-term critical gains by successive governments. The balance of power has remained dwindling between different stake holders. This has hampered progress and disturbed national cohesion on many levels.

On completion of 50 years of the Constitution of Pakistan in 2023, there is a need to deliberate the next 50 years with a futuristic vision and focus on better governance, inclusive policies, and synergized frameworks.

The Constitution of Pakistan, 1973 was passed by the Parliament on April 10, and it came into force on August 14. To commemorate the golden jubilee of the apex law of the country, the Institute of Policy Studies Islamabad (IPS) is holding an international conference on the above subject. The hybrid conference shall bring together the law experts and practitioners on important constitutional themes.

The themes and sub-themes of the conference are centered on legal, socio-political, and governance dimensions related to the political representation, center-province relations, civil-military relations, and legislature-judiciary relations.

Themes and sub-themes

• Constitution and National Integration
  • Basic structure
  • Supremacy of law
  • Social and cultural inclusion
  • Scope and domain of Fundamental Rights and the Principles of Policy
  • Constitutional amendments and their impact
• Democracy and Public Representation
  • Current political structure and its effectiveness
  • Alternative schemes for effective political representation
  • Participation of minorities and other segments in political process
• Relations between Center and Provinces
  • Provincial autonomy and national integration
  • Distribution of legislative and Administrative powers
  • Economic relations and division of financial resource
• Civil-Military Relations in a Democratic Pakistan
  • Constitutional scheme of civil-military relations in Pakistan
  • Experiments for institutionalizing civil-military relations
  • Models of civil-military relations from around the world
• Legislation and Interpretation: Achieving Balance between Legislature & Judiciary
  • Legislative mandate of Parliament and judicial review
  • Legislation through adjudication
  • Judicial appointments and parliamentary oversight
• Operationalizing the Constitution: The Role of Executive
  • The role and mandate of the executive in the constitutional scheme
  • Executive and the question of political neutrality
  • Bureaucracy and the grassroots democratic institutions
  • Scope and limits of subordinate legislation

On each theme, a constitutional expert shall be invited to make a keynote speech. Apart from it, papers contributed by academics, practitioners, scholars, and students shall be included after peer review.

Guidelines for submission:

• All contributions should be written as research papers in English language.
• Contributors shall submit an undertaking to affirm the originality of the content and that it has not already been submitted elsewhere for consideration.
• Papers that are not clearly falling under a theme/sub-theme shall not be entertained. The approach and expression has to be academic.
• The abstracts and papers should be submitted in MS Word format as well as pdf formats.
• The length of the abstract should be from 250-300 words. The paper length should range from 3500-5000 words.
• Spellings and punctuation should be used in American English (e.g. organize, center, defense). Commas and periods should be given inside closing quotation marks. Longer quotations should be indented and set off from the text, and given in smaller font size, without quotation marks.
• Dates should be written as May 20, 2020. Abbreviations should be given in brackets after giving the full form on first use, e.g., United Nations (UN). Subsequently, UN should be used throughout the text.
• Chicago Manual of Style (CMOS) 16th Edition should be followed for endnotes. Main words in the titles of articles, books and journals should begin with capital letters. Titles of Books, Journals, Newspapers should be italicized. Reports should be cited like books. In case of multiple authors, give the names of all the authors in the endnotes. Examples of citations in CMOS16 are given below:

Books: Syed Irtiqa Ahmed Zaidi, Negotiating the Power Corridors: Forty Challenging Years of Civil Service (Islamabad: IPS Press, 2020).

Chapters in books: Ye Hailin, “Rise of Extremism in India and Chinese Response,” Hindutva: Rising Extremism in India, ed. Khalid Rahman, 2nd ed. (Islamabad: IPS Press, 2020), 117.

Journal articles: Asma Sana Bilal and Nabiya Imran, “Emerging Contours of Transatlantic Relationship under Trump Administration,” Policy Perspectives 16, no. 1 (2019): 3-21 (7) https://doi.org/10.13169/polipers.16.1.0003.

Newspaper articles/websites: Waqar Masood Khan, “Unified Economic Response,” Express Tribune, April 1, 2020, accessed May 12, 2020, https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/637477-.

• Tables, charts, graphs, and figures may be included in the manuscript where necessary with consecutive numbering, proper captions and complete references. These should be in an editable form.
• Images should be submitted in high resolution (300-600 dpi) in .jpeg and .bitmap.
• Responsibility to seek permission to reproduce illustrations subject to copyright lies with the author/s.
• All abstracts and papers shall be peer reviewed and the authors shall be expected to revise their papers as per academic practice.
• A nominal fee shall be charged to facilitate review process. Fees are given below.
• Conference shall include lunch and refreshment.
• All Papers presented in the conference shall make part of a book to be published by the Institute of Policy Studies, Islamabad.

Timeline of the Conference:

Contribution Fee (non-refundable):

Pakistani Authors: Rs. 5000 per submission

International Authors: 25 USD per submission

Fee shall be deposited to the following bank account: