Parliamentary System and Framing of the 1973 Constitution: Contest between Government and Opposition inside the National Assembly

It is generally believed that the Constitution of 1973 was passed unanimously by the parliament of Pakistan and was equally acceptable for all the federating units. While studying the processes of the approval of the said constitution inside the assembly, it becomes evident that the reality was quite different. There exists an argument that most of the Opposition members were not allowed to join the parliament’s session while the final approval of the constitution was processed. The present paper is an effort to analyse the developments that took place inside the National Assembly to pass this document which was to serve as the fundamental document of the state system in forthcoming years. In other words, the present article analyses the course of action through which the Constitution was framed. This is an analytical study primarily based on the National Assembly debates supported by the secondary sources, biographies, and autobiographies of the contemporary politicians to understand how far the amendments suggested by the then opposition were accommodated by the ruling party. Furthermore, this paper analyses the reasons for which each government has to amend the basic structure of the constitution to make it more practical and acceptable for its units. For instance the Eighteenth Amendment removed the concurrent list of the constitution but now the following governments are facing issues to implement the Amendment in detail.

Developing Reading Skills of Primary Children in Government School

When the children go to school it is very important to them to learn reading and writing. Their classroom activities come under these two skills. The children working on some projects have to accomplish their work by reading books. Though reading is emphasized more but unfortunately a large number of the students in schools generally and in Government schools particularly, find the reading task challenging and as result most of the students face many reading difficulties. To investigate how I as a teacher could help the primary children to develop their reading skills, I conducted a study in one of the Government schools in Karachi where the medium of instruction was Urdu. What strategies could help the children to enhance their reading skills and what challenges hinder the process of reading? The study showed that reading skills could be enhanced if the tasks were according to the needs, interests and the abilities of the students. They are motivated to learn if they find something is relevant to them. Different strategies were found useful to promote students' reading skills. Their involvement and active participation in different reading activities encouraged the learners to enhance their reading skills. They could learn better if opportunities and a conducive learning environment is provided to them. The study also indicates that children are reluctant to read because they are afraid of making mistakes. They should be encouraged to take chances and correct themselves because they learn by making mistakes. In case they make mistakes they need support to correct themselves rather than be corrected by the teacher. The study showed that the teacher needs professional support to work with children to develop their reading skills. A teacher who is not professionally developed cannot help them to enhance their reading skills as they also need to learn many skills to achieve the goal successfully.