1955 Pakistani Constituent Assembly election
On 21 June 1955, seven years after the independence of Pakistan, the election for the Second Constituent Assembly was held through the votes of provincial members of all provinces of the country. The resulting Assembly remained in existence until 1958, when it was dissolved following the imposition of military rule by the interim president Iskander Mirza.
Quotes
[edit]- I can see only one reason for it and that is, that if the Central dictatorship find that elections to the Constituent Assembly have not gone in their favour, inspite of gestapo methods, which are being used, they will find some means to file a suit and nonlegality of the Constituent Assembly thus prolonging their irresponsible rule at the Centre.
- Feroz Khan Noon about voting methods of the election, "Noon Criticises Central Dictatorship", The Pakistan Observer, 5 June 1955, page 1.
- Elections to Constituent Assembly have left ruling group in central position, with reasonable prospects of retaining power, though this will certainly be diluted by need to strike bargain with non-Muslim League elements and to broaden base of Cabinet. Their position by no means as strong as it was, and any vulnerabilities will be vigorously exploited by opposition.
- U.S. Ambassador Horace Hildreth on a telegram sent from Karachi to the United States Department of State on 30 June 1955, quoted from Foreign Relations of the United States, 1955–1957, South Asia, Volume VIII, page 432.
- Whether it is representative of the people or not is another matter and I would firstly to consider to what extent it represents the various electoral colleges. That is does so it some extent is clear, although attempts were certainly made in Bengal, to temper with predilection of the members, by withdrawing section 92 just before the elections to the Constituent Assembly and thus influence the voting by such conduct.
- Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy at the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan on 10 September 1955, quoted from the official website of the National Assembly of Pakistan.
- The elections were a peculiar type of elections which I have not understood from that day to this. I was elected by a Punjabi group to represent Sialkot, a place I had never been to.
- Iskander Mirza, the first president of Pakistan, in his own diaries, quoted from "Chapter 28: One Unit", Iskander Mirza: Rise and Fall of a President (1997), Ahmed Salim, reproduced by Sami Panhwar (2022), page 108.
