Islamabad, August 02, 2004: �The Constitution of a country is a sacred document which reflects the consensus and ideology of its citizens. Although a constitution should evolve with time, its basic nature should remain the same. Amendments made to the Constitution of 1973 have completely changed the nature of the Constitution.� These were some of sentiments expressed at a briefing session on �Overview of the Constitution� held for parliamentarians and parliamentary staff at Islamabad.

The briefing session was held to orient parliamentarians and parliamentary staff on the overview of the Constitution of Pakistan. 50 parliamentarians and parliamentary staff members from all major political parties attended the session.

The speakers included Justice (Retd.) Fakhruddin G. Ebrahim, Former Law Minister; Dr. Jaffar Ahmed, Director Pakistan Study Centre, University of Karachi; and Prof. Sajjad Naseer, Professor of Political Science, University of the Punjab. Justice Fakhruddin G. Ebrahim gave an overview of the amendments made to Pakistan�s Constitution and threw light on the role of the judiciary in the evolution of the Constitution over the years. Dr. Jaffar Ahmed presented an overview of the Constitutional history of Pakistan and spoke about the roles of executive, judiciary and legislature; the civil-military equation, and ideological/Islamic provisions of the Constitution. Prof. Sajjad Naseer compared the constitutions and constitutional history of Pakistan and India.

The presentations were followed by an active Question & Hour session in which the participants interacted with the resource persons.

The session was organised by Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development and Transparency � PILDAT, as part of the Pakistan Legislative Strengthening Consortium � PLSC, under the Strengthening National and Provincial Legislative Governance (SNPLG) project supported by USAID.