Welcome to the Senate Museum
This Museum narrates the story of Pakistan’s journey towards participatory federalism through the Senate of Pakistan-the House of the Federation and preserves and projects its foundational soul and spirit. Walking through various dioramas visitors get glimpses of the continuing journey of the Senate to make Pakistani democracy more meaningful.
The rationale of the creation of the Senate resides in our history.
The rights of minority provinces were at the heart of the creation of Pakistan. During the struggle for independence Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah advocated for provincial autonomy and demanded a federal constitution with residuary powers vested in the provinces in his 14-points.
During Pakistan's constitutional journey the founding fathers proposed a bicameral legislature in the Basic Principles Committee in September 1950 to operationalize Quaid’s vision. The suggestion resonated in the series of proposals put forward by leaders like Khwaja Nazimuddin and Muhammad Ali Bogra.
The constitutions of 1956 and 1962 provided for a unicameral legislature on the basis of population. This disproportionality in representation denied the smaller federating units an effective and meaningful participation in the affairs of the federation. As a consequence, federal-provincial and intra-provincial polarization grew giving rise to a feeling of deprivation and not being in control of their natural resources in the provinces. The question of parity amongst other reasons led to the tragedy of 1971.
A 45-member Senate of Pakistan was conceived in the Constitution of 1973, as a consequence of a consensus among the then political leadership through the Constitutional Accord of 1972. The rationale was to accommodate Pakistani diversity, give equal representation to the federating units through a permanent and a perpetual House that will not be subject to dissolution and to provide a federal Parliamentary structure.
The Senate's inaugural sitting was held on 6th August, 1973 in the Old State Bank Building, Islamabad.
After the enforcement of the Constitution, 1973, the democratic process at regular intervals was disrupted by extra-constitutional measures. The Senate of Pakistan, a House giving equal representation to the federating units and guaranteed under the Constitution to be a House in continuity not to be dissolved, found its continuity being violated at the altar of Martial Law, thus in 1977 and 1999 when the Senate was sacrificed, distrust, centralization, polarization set in, disrupting the constitutional scheme of the participatory federalism.
As the long and cold nights of absolutism in Pakistan's political history began to give way to the warm sun of constitutionalism, the concept of participatory federalism began to take roots, culminating in the 18th Constitutional Amendment, when for the second time in Pakistan's Constitutional history, a grand national consensus within Parliament and between the federation and the federating units emerged, rekindling the flame of participatory federalism and true Parliamentary democracy. The amendment devolved powers from the federation to the provinces, made the provinces masters of their destiny within the ambit of Constitution of 1973. Thus enhancing the role and significance of the Senate as a House which not only protects but facilitates federal-provincial and intra-provincial harmony to keep the federation running smoothly and to make the federation strong as each federating unit blossoms.
In 2017 the Senate constitutionally claimed representation in the Public Accounts Committee for fiscal oversight. It is a historic development towards the empowered Senate.
The road to reclaim on behalf of the federating units is long and the Senate on February 13, 2017 unanimously passed a historic resolution to enhance the role and powers of the Senate to protect rights of the provinces and assign substantive meanings to the constitutional command on provincial autonomy.
Empowered Senate symbolizes strengthened Pakistani federalism-it is the right way to realize our rights!
The Senate has come a long way but it has an even longer road in sight. It is only way that we can have the truly federal state of Pakistan that Quai-i-Azam wanted Pakistan to be.