It is said that the constitution as promulgated in 1973 in its original form was one of the best in the world. But we are singularly distinguished by the fact that we have disregarded it sometimes as a whole and sometimes partially. As a whole under the unconstitutional military regimes and partially under the so-called constitutional political regimes. For example, the preamble of the constitution says: "Whereas sovereignty over the entire universe belongs to Almighty Allah alone and the authority to be exercised by the people of Pakistan within the limits prescribed by Him is a sacred trust; and whereas it is the will of the people to establish an order...wherein the Muslims shall be enabled to order their lives in the individual and collective spheres in accordance with the teaching and requirements of Islam as set out in the Holy Quran and Sunnah and wherein adequate provisions shall be made for the minorities freely to profess and practise their religion and develop their culture." In the year 1985 the Objectives Resolution was made part of the constitution which also says that the Muslims shall be enabled to order their lives in the individual and collective spheres in accordance with the teaching and requirements of Islam as set out in the Holy Quran and Sunnah and wherein adequate provision (in the constitution) shall be made for the minorities to profess and practise their religion and develop their culture. As if the repetition of the pious intention is a good substitute for translating it into practice. In the Objectives Resolution the intention was to frame a constitution which should enable the Muslims to order their lives in accordance with Islam. In the constitution the will of the people of Pakistan to do the same has been enshrined. Now there is no doubt that the only sources of Islam are the Holy Quran and Sunnah. But the Holy Quran and Sunnah are interpreted in the entire Islamic world in general and in Pakistan in particular in various different ways. Have we ever tried to establish a democratic way of doing this? There is a council called the Islamic Ideology Council established by the president by nominating a few persons as members of that council This council is supposed to interpret Islam for us. In my opinion it can interpret Islam only for the president who nominated its members. Why should any of us accept the council's interpretation? As a matter of fact this council should have consisted of members elected by the people of Pakistan to do the job of interpretation. This has never been done and no objection was ever raised by the elite of the society to the constitution of the council. It is a fact that there are more schools of Muslim thought in Pakistan than one. Does the council represent them? At least the majority of the Muslims of Pakistan should have been represented in the council with the representative members of the minorities to put forward their own view. In short Islamic Ideology Council is not a representative body and therefore cannot interpret Islam for us. Secondly it was undertaken in the preamble to the constitution that adequate provision would be made for the minorities freely to profess and practise their religion. As far as I know this solemn undertaking was never honoured. On the contrary laws were made to curb the freedom promised to the minorities. Thirdly it was promised in the preamble that faithful to the declaration made by the founder of Pakistan, the state of Pakistan would be based on the Islamic principles of social justice. Now, social justice whether based on Islamic principles or otherwise is no where to be seen in Pakistan. All that has been pointed out above betrays our hypocrisy. We believe in producing beautiful legal documents like the constitution and other laws of the land but never consider it necessary to act upon them. Isn't it a pity? The writer is a retired judge of the Lahore High Court E-mail: samdani1_2000@yahoo.com