21/07/2026
Wrote this article on the 50th Anniversary of the (1973) on the hosted by Institute of Policy Studies, Islamabad (IPS) a few years back (just being published now) that illustrates the impact and power of it from the early years to today.
After rereading it today - feel there is so much more to add but three (3) key most surprising elements most people wouldn't know - I will highlight here:
1) Objections to OR by minority members of Constituent Assembly in 1949 were more political and less on principle - a fact even the esteemed Adv. Hamid Khan gets wrong in his famous book on Constitutional History of Pakistan along with many other authors and academic who dont critically evaluate the historical record. I will probably write a more detailed piece on this someday but I gave a detailed talk on this at Bahria University a few years back with IPS - https://lnkd.in/drh_E_2m)
2) That the birth of Fundamental Rights and its continued existence and empowerment throught Public Interest Litigation (PIL) is credited to OR - yes you heard this correctly. The entire practice and development of PIL is born out of OR. There are many who disregard this reality and happy that Prof. Martin Lau captured it in his work - Chapter 5 in "The Role of Islam in the Legal System of Pakistan".
3) OR is the only serious penultimate tool in Pakistan's constitution that has historical proven again and again to assist in democratic challenges - not enough credit is given to this probably most significant aspect to OR. A key reason is more deeper in its natural law jurisprudencial value (Hope to write on this aswell sometime in future). Thus it is a shame that today experts and advocates struggle with constitutional challenges because they are not well-versed with OR and therefore Islamic law.
Honestly there is very little critical studies on OR and perhaps Prof. Dr. Martin Lau's thesis is one of the most authoritative.
I am thankful to him and Dr. Ikram Ul Haq - who is probably the most premier expert on Islamic Constitutional History of Pakistan - the former secretary of the Council of Islamic Ideology (CII), who also has published a series of books in Urdu around the topic which I encourage those who really wish to know the hidden gems of truth - my article is but a drop in the ocean of knowledge he has brought forth over the years from the depth of Pakistan's archives.
Truly honored and grateful to both for their guidance and support in the drafting of this piece.
Special thanks and appreciation to the IPS team and in particular Nadeem Geelani for encouraging me to write this piece for the conference.
𝐅𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐀𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐥𝐞 | 𝐏𝐨𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐲 𝐏𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐬, 𝐕𝐨𝐥. 𝟐𝟑, 𝐈𝐬𝐬𝐮𝐞 2 (𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟔) "𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑶𝒃𝒋𝒆𝒄𝒕𝒊𝒗𝒆𝒔 𝑹𝒆𝒔𝒐𝒍𝒖𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏: 𝑨𝒏 𝑼𝒏𝒇𝒖𝒍𝒇𝒊𝒍𝒍𝒆𝒅 𝑶𝒃𝒋𝒆𝒄𝒕𝒊𝒗𝒆? 𝑨𝒏 𝑨𝒏𝒂𝒍𝒚𝒔𝒊𝒔 𝒐𝒇 𝑰𝒕𝒔 𝑪𝒐𝒏𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒕𝒖𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒂𝒍 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑱𝒖𝒅𝒊𝒄𝒊𝒂𝒍 𝑰𝒎𝒑𝒂𝒄𝒕 𝒊𝒏 𝑷𝒂𝒌𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒏 𝑺𝒊𝒏𝒄𝒆 1949".
𝐶𝑎𝑛 𝑠𝑜𝑚𝑒𝑜𝑛𝑒 𝑤ℎ𝑜 𝑠𝑒𝑖𝑧𝑒𝑠 𝑝𝑜𝑤𝑒𝑟 𝑏𝑦 𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑐𝑒 𝑠𝑖𝑚𝑝𝑙𝑦 𝑤𝑟𝑖𝑡𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑖𝑟 𝑜𝑤𝑛 𝑟𝑢𝑙𝑒𝑠 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑑𝑖𝑠𝑐𝑎𝑟𝑑 𝑎 𝑛𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛'𝑠 𝑓𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑑𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑝𝑟𝑖𝑛𝑐𝑖𝑝𝑙𝑒𝑠?
That's the question Justice Sajjad Ali Shah posed decades ago — and it still shapes how Pakistan's courts think about legitimacy, power, and the limits of authority today.
In latest Policy Perspectives piece, Syed Muaz Shah traces how the Objectives Resolution became the touchstone courts return to whenever that question resurfaces — from military takeovers to modern-day constitutional battles.
Scan QR to read the full analysis.
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