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69 seats in theConstituent Assembly of Pakistan 35 seats needed for a majority | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Registered | 425 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Before theindependence of Pakistan in 1947, members of the first term of theConstituent Assembly of Pakistan were selected through anindirect election held after June by the votes of theBritish Indian members of the provincial legislative assemblies.[1]
In 1946, after theprovincial elections were held inBritish India, theBritish government sent aCabinet Mission to the colony. The mission proposed the formation of an Indian confederacy, where autonomous states would have the authority to frame their own constitutions in unitary groups. Following theConstituent Assembly election later that year, theConstituent Assembly of India was formed.Indian National Congress, the largest member party, initially accepted the mission's proposal but later the party's leaderJawaharlal Nehru rejected it.[2] As a result, the Muslim nationalistAll-India Muslim League boycotted the assembly sessions,[3] and its leaderMuhammad Ali Jinnah refused to participate in the assembly.[4] On 3 June 1947, the then British prime ministerClement Attlee announced the plan for the transfer of power and proposed the formation ofa separate Constituent Assembly for theproposed state for Indian Muslims. He also declared that members of the proposed assembly would be elected by the votes of provincial legislative assembly members.[5]
After the vote by members of theBengal Legislative Assembly on 20 June in favor of thepartition of Bengal, the following day it was announced that the date for submitting nominations for the Constituent Assembly elections in theBengal region would be 30 June, and the election would be held in 5 July.[6] Meanwhile, in 23 June, after the members ofPunjab Legislative Assembly voted in favor of the partition of Punjab, elections were announced to be held around July in thePunjab region.[7] In 22 July, it was announced that the legislative seats ofAssam Province had been divided into Group A and Group B for the elections. From Group B's 29 seats, 3 members (including 2 Muslims) would be elected to the new Constituent Assembly by a vote among the members.[8] In 30 July, candidates from Assam submitted their nomination papers, and it was announced that the election for the province would be held on 2 August 1947 at the legislative building inShillong, the provincial capital.[9]
On 26 July, the names of 66 elected members fromEast Bengal,West Punjab,Sindh,North-West Frontier Province, andBaluchistan were announced. Among those elected, 48 were Muslims and 2 were Sikhs. From East Bengal, 41 members were elected; from West Punjab, 17; from Sindh, 4; from the North-West Frontier Province, 3; and from Baluchistan, 1 member. Separate elections were not held for Sindh, the North-West Frontier Province, and Baluchistan; instead, members elected earlier to the Indian Constituent Assembly were directly taken as representatives.[10] Out of the total elected members, 59 belonged to the All-India Muslim League.[11]
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| Party | Votes | % | Seats | |
| All-India Muslim League | 59 | |||
| Indian National Congress | 9 | |||
| Independents | 1 | |||
| Total | 69 | |||
| Registered voters/turnout | 425 | – | ||
On 28 July 1947, general secretaryLiaquat Ali Khan convened a meeting of the All-India Muslim League members at the legislative building in Karachi for the Constituent Assembly.[12] In 9 August,Kiran Shankar Roy andBhim Sen Sachar were selected as the parliamentary leader and parliamentary deputy leader respectively of the Indian National Congress, the opposition party in the new Constituent Assembly.[13] In 10 August, Muhammad Ali Jinnah was elected president of the Constituent Assembly.[14] On 14 August 1947, Pakistan gained independence fromBritish Empire.[2] On the following day, under the leadership of Liaquat Ali Khan, thefirst federal cabinet of Pakistan was formed.[15]
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