Constitution of Arsalania
| Constitution of the People's Republic of Arsalania | |
|---|---|
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| Overview | |
| Jurisdiction |  Arsalania |
| Created | 11 May 2019 |
| Ratified | 12 May 2019 |
| Date effective | 14 May 2019 |
| System | Federal Parliamentary People's Republic |
| Government structure | |
| Branches | 3 |
| Chambers | Unicameral National Parliament) |
| Executive | Supreme Leader |
| Judiciary | Supreme court, high courts and district courts |
| Federalism | Federation |
| History | |
| Amendments | 2 |
| Last amended | 9 September 2022 |
| Author(s) | Arsal Abbas Mirza |
The Constitution of the People's Republic of Arsalania (Urdu: آئینِ ارسَلعِینِیَہ) also known as the 2019 Constitution is the Supreme Law of Arsalania. Drafted by Supreme Leader Arsal Abbas Mirza with inspiration taken from a (now unavailable) International Model Constitution, It was created in it's original form on 11 May 2019, ratified on 12 May 2019 and went into effect on 14 May 2019, through which the People's Republic of Arsalania was founded.
The constitution is intended to guide Arsalania's law as well as it's political system and political tradition. It identifies the character, limitations, powers, borders of the state, the constitutional structure, establishment of various institutions such as the judiciary, legislature and the country's armed forces, provides provisions regarding their interaction and identifies the people and their fundamental rights as legally guaranteed.
The 55 Articles of the Constitution of Arsalania are divided over five chapters which are further divided into various 'Parts' providing provisions with respect to specific topics.
The first three Chapters of the Constitution of Arsalania establish the very definition of the State, State Objectives and lastly the very organisation of the State. Chapter IV deals with constitutionally guaranteed Fundamental Rights while Chapter V deals with the restrictions levied upon individuals and entities within the legal jurisdiction of the People's Republic of Arsalania.
Article 2 of the Constitution (State Form) establishes the Supreme Leader as the Democratically elected (The details of his tenure, powers and election as well as impeachment are detailed in Article 6, Elections) leader of the People's Republic. Article 2 furthermore establishes the State Ideology as Arsalanian Socialism and the State Religion as Islam, following the Ja'fari Fiqh (Twelver Shi'ism), Article 25 and it's sub-articles discuss the State Religion, Freedom of Religion and Beliefs in Arsalania with detail.
Although the National Parliament cannot make laws contrary to the Constitutional provisions, the Constitution itself is capable of being amended via a two thirds majority or a Popular referendum or a public initiative. To date, the 2019 Constitution has been amended twice, first of which was the First Constitutional Amendment 2022 which was implemented to bring the Constitution into line with the 6 point 21 March Resolution and the Second Constitutional Amendment of September 2022 was implemented to legally annex several new territories, improve the structure, codify several constitutional processes, etc.
Origins and Background
From Arsalania's origins in 2017, to 2019 Arsalania itself did not exist as a concrete state due to a variety of reasons, however apart from a lack of physical land claims or even state apparatus on paper, one of the biggest hurdles was the absence of a proper unified system of law to guide the process of Arsalania's establishment gradually.
Arsalania's multiple periods of severe stagnancy would not help the situation, however in May 2019 an initiative began to draft a constitution to establish a proper state for the Arsalanian people.
Draft of the Constitution
The Draft of the 2019 Constitution took place over the course of a few days with significant inspiration from an International Model Constitution. Over the course of one day and one night, the Constitution was drafted, finally being finished on 11 May 2019. The very next day it was ratified with support of the few Arsalanians still part of the movement at the time. Two days later on 14 May 2019, the Constitution of Arsalania was put into effect thus marking the foundation of the People's Republic of Arsalania.
It established a comprehensive programme for guiding the new State and provided a foundation for later activities from 2020 onwards when the political system began to truly become active.
Structure
Fundamental Rights of the People
The Constitution of Arsalania guarantees all fundamental human rights and considers them inviolable. For example, Article 20 of the Constitution (Part I, Chapter IV, Fundamental Rights) recognizes the welfare and equality of all humans, citizens or not, codifies the abolishment of slavery, declares that "human dignity must be respected in any case" (Clause 2, Article 20)
Similarly, further articles throughout Chapter IV establish application of fundamental rights, right to personal integrity, property rights, capital and corporal punishment is abolished while torture is prohibited. Article 26 guarantees Freedom of expression while Article 27 guarantees the right to assemble.The general character of the Constitution of Arsalania is humanitarian which is considered in line with Islamic principles.
Provisions
Although due to the First Constitutional Amendment, the core ideological foundations of the State have changed, many features and provisions were retained due to them being considered compatible with Arsalania's new ideological leanings. The Arsalanian Constitution defined the role of Islam, the State Ideology and defined the working boundaries between various institutions. Arsalania is established as a Federation with the Capital Territory as the seat of the Central Government and the Provinces receiving representation in the National Parliament as well as general autonomy.
The Constitution establishes a "Unicameral Legislature" known as the 'National Parliament' as a legislative authority to which representatives are elected to for a one year tenure each. At present, any citizen eligible to vote can be designated as a candidate for the position of Supreme Leader by the Election Nomination Council, however the generally agreed upon stipulation is that the Supreme Leader must either be a Muslim belonging to the majority denomination or a non-Muslim/Muslim with a degree of knowledge sufficient to govern efficiently over a population that bears a different creed.
While the first three Chapters of the Constitution introduce the very structure and definition of the state and it's institutions, Chapter IV declares the rights of the people while Chapter V declares the restrictions placed upon all individuals and entities within the People's Republic of Arsalania.
Under the Constitution, the Fundamental Rights include security of person, safeguards as to arrest and detention, prohibition of slavery and forced labour, freedom of movement, freedom of association, freedom of speech, freedom to profess religion and safeguards to religious institutions, non-discrimination in respect of access to public places and in service, preservation of languages, script and culture. Article 1 of the Constitution declares Urdu, English and Punjabi to be the national languages.
Parts
The individual articles of the Constitution of Arsalania, which number 55 in total were organized into a total of five chapters which are further divided into various Parts and Sections. These are:
| Sr # | Name | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | State Definition | Articles 1-3; |
| 2 | State Objectives | Articles 4,5; Long clauses |
| 3 | State Organisation | 5 parts, Articles 6-19; |
| 4 | Fundamental Rights | 6 parts, Articles 20-45; |
| 5 | Individual Restrictions | 5 Parts, Articles 46-55; |
Amendments
The Constitution of Arsalania can be altered through either passing of a Constitutional Amendment within the National Parliament, through popular referendum or public initiative/petition. To date. As of October 2022, two constitutional amendments have been passed.
First Constitutional Amendment
The first Constitutional Amendment[1] was passed on 2 April 2022 and proposed the following amendments:
- Editing of the Preamble and Foundation such that the actual territorial extent of the People’s Republic at this time.
- Article Two of the Constitution shall be amended and the principle of secularity removed as well as the Federal nature of the government ratified into Arsalanian Law as such.
- Amend Article Nine to rename the ‘Provincial Council’ to the ‘Provincial Government’
- Amend Article Twelve to Bring it in line with the official terminology and functions. The Government of Arsalania shall officially be known as the ‘Federal Government’
- Amend Article Thirteen to utilize the proper legal name of the National Legislature, i.e the National Parliament instead of the National Assembly.
- Amend Article Thirty Six to restrict the legal right of procreation between married couples only, the state should also assist in the process of educating the people in regards to this matter and to encourage parents to allow their children to marry once they reach physical and mental maturity.
- Amend Article Thirty Five, ‘Secularity’ shall be removed as a mandatory principle to be considered and the formation of parties focusing on representation of a specific religious group, however such shall not allow them to restrict membership from other religious groups.
- Amend Article Twenty Five to be ‘State Religion, Freedom of Religion and Belief’ and form two points with the secondary point consisting of the present contents. The main contents i.e Article Twenty Five (a) will officially declare Islam (under the Ja’fari Fiqh’) as the State Religion with all other Fuqaha protected under law.
- Amend Article Two to declare Arsalanian Socialism as the official Ideology to be followed by the State.
After being passed, the first Constitutional Amendment did away with many elements of Arsalania's original ideology, Arsalanian Trotskyism and brought it's character in line with the new state ideology, Arsalanian Socialism.
Second Constitutional Amendment
In September 2022, the second constitutional amendment was tabled in the National Parliament. Although not as notably drastic as it's predecessor amendment, the second constitutional amendment cemented several key elements of the State Ideology into Arsalania's supreme law. A key example is the restriction of ownership & management of public infrastructure (power, water, electricity, etc ) to the state via amendment of Article 53 of the Constitution.
Original Proposal
The Seven point 2nd Constitutional Amendment is detailed as follows:
- Amendment of the Preamble to legally instate the newly integrated Autonomous National Territories as recognized parts of Arsalania as per the contents of the Constitution.
- Amendment of Article 12 for better consistency in Terminology
- Addition of Article 16 (b) to officially codify the process of Constitutional Amendment.
- Removal of various points of articles within the constitution which make references to Article 4 of the Constitution as well as others that make references to specific articles.
- Amendment of Article 47 to make explicit mention of the Ministry of Interior’s responsibility for deciding the criterion for deciding which as well as the Provincial Governments themselves that may choose to adopt a policy separate from the Central Government.
- Amendment of Article 53 to include several points specifically prescribing the ownership of basic public infrastructure (roads, electricity, water supply etc) to the State.
- Amendment of Article 9 to emphasize and codify the degree of autonomous governance awarded to the Provincial Governments.
History of Arsalanian Constitutional Reform
Although the 2019 Constitution has been the supreme law of Arsalania since its ratification, the process of reform and amendment was not a significant process in Arsalanian history until 2021. This has to do with both a long-standing trend of inactivity and lack of attention towards legislative activities in general in the country until a period of general revitalization which has been sustained till the present. Due to significant ideological changes, it has only been natural that there has been much demand to reform the Arsalanian Constitution to bring it in line with Arsalanian Ideological precepts (specifically those of Arsalania's state ideology, Arsalanian Socialism)
21 March Resolution and Continuing Constitutional Reforms
On 21 March, 2021, a resolution which did away with Arsalania's original ideology of Arsalanian Trotskyism was passed in a historic session of the National Parliament. This set in motion a period of immense reform and millenarian transformation of the People's Republic in all aspects.
One of the biggest changes brought upon by this event was the total ideological shift in the People's Republic. Although the third point of the 21 March Resolution suggested that classical Arsalanian ideals be preserved, however at the time of the Resolution's passing, many ideological tenets contradicted the contents of the Constitution. Hence to date, two constitutional amendments have taken place. Another constitutional amendment is reportedly due to be debated in the National Parliament but some wonder if the adoption of a new constitution altogether would be the appropriate means forward.