Constitutional Coup The Constitutional Coup refers to the dismissal of Pakistani Prime Minister Khawaja Nazimuddin ' s government in 1953 by Ghulam Mohamad despite the Prime Minister enjoying the support of the Constituent Assembly . It also refers to the subsequent dismissal of Pakistan ' s first constituent Assembly by the Governor General in 1954 . Governor - General , Ghulam Mohammad , dismissed the Nazimuddin government with General Ayub Khan ' s backing in April 1953 although his government had won the confidence of the House only a fortnight earlier . General Ayub himself admitted at a news conference at the Governor ' s House in Karachi in October 1964 , that " when there was a conflict between him ( Khawaja Nazimuddin ) and Governor - General , I decided to side with the Governor - General . " On 21 September 1954 , the Constituent Assembly amended the Government of India Act . The amendments precluded the Governor General from acting except on the advice of his ministers . In retaliation Ghulam Mohammad dissolved the Constituent Assembly itself , at a time when it had almost finalized the draft of the constitution , only because the members of the Assembly ' s sub - committee had decided to curtail his powers . And this he did with the active support of General Ayub Khan His action was condoned by the federal judiciary in particular by Justice Munir . Justice Munir , ruled in favour of the dismissal in the Molvi Tamizuddin Khan ' s case , declared that the Assembly was not a sovereign body . Munir declared that the Constitutional Assembly had ' lived in a fool ' s paradise if ever seized with the notion that it was the sovereign body of the state . ' According to Munir , the independence Jinnah gained for his country was restricted by the prerogative rights of the English Crown . He adopted the argument made to the court by Lord Diplock that Pakistan did not become independent in 1947 ; it had attained a status the same as that Munir felt the senior Dominions possessed , ' virtually indistinguishable from independence . The conclusion reached by Justice Cornelius in his dissenting opinion was entirely different . He answered Munir ' s interpretation of Commonwealth history with his own understanding of the meaning of a dominion . He maintained that the historical fact was that Pakistan had been created with complete independence , and he pointed to what he believed to be clear differences in the status of the senior dominions and the new dominion of Pakistan . Cornelius stressed that Pakistan was not just a Dominion but an independent Dominion . According to Allen McGrath , author of the Destruction of Pakistan ' s Democracy , when Munir denied the existence of the Assembly ' s sovereignty , he destroyed Pakistan ' s existing constitutional basis . He did further harm when he did not indicate where sovereignty resided . He thereby created a vacuum which was an opportunity for Ghulam Mohammed . To support Ghulam Mohammad ' s use of non - constitutional emergency powers , Munir found it necessary to move beyond the constitution to what he claimed was the Common Law , to general legal maxims , and to English historical precedent . He relied on Bracton ' s maxim ' that which is otherwise not lawful is made lawful by necessity ' , and the Roman law maxim urged by Jennings , ' the well - being of the people is the supreme law . ' This was to be used as legal justification for all subsequent martial laws . This coup marked the end of the Muslim League created by Muhammad Ali Jinnah and the beginning of the overt assumption of power by the Pakistan bureaucracy with the Military ' s assistance . By 1958 the Military was to step in openly .