the 1973 constitution, therefore, marked a return to a parliamentary form of democracy after the presidential experiment introduced under the 1962 constitution. there were also concessions made to the provinces to alleviate fears that the central government would overrule them on every issue. this was important as the one unit scheme had only recently been abolished and because 2 of the 4 provincial governments in the new state of were non-ppp. the 1973 constitution, however, had another advantage over its two predecessors: it had been agreed and voted on by a democratically elected assembly. this gave it greater authority and, even though it was suspended under the next martial law regime, since independence, pakistan has devised and changed three written constitutions and the fourth one was drawn up and it was restored on the 30th of december in 1985 and remains in place to date.