EDITORIAL: We are now all set to embark on our fourth exercise in drawing up a constitution.

... The first exercise yielded the draft of 1954, which proved still-born. The second Constituent Assemblyprovideduswiththe1956Constitution, but this was overthrown by the generals about two-and-a-half years after its promulgation.

Af ter the four-year interregnum of military rule that followed, Chief Martial Law Administrator I, in his wisdom ... gave us the 1962 Constitution which was avowedly based on the idea that Pakistan`s wayward democracy required rigorous controls. This, too, died a natural death in 1969 when F.M. Ayub Khan yielded place to Chief Martial L aw Administrator II. ...

If we really claim to have learnt anything from our dismal past of floundering from constitution to constitution, we ought to ask ourselves frankly whether our latest essay at devising a permanent framework of government is really being undertaken in more auspicious circumstances. ... The search for a consensus must never be abandoned, for the alternative to a consensus is to ram the draft down the throat of the National Assembly on the strength of a majority. Such a procedure will detract from the universal acceptability which a constitution must enjoy.