The Problem with Article 352

Article 352 does not distinguish what kind of emergency has arisen: a war, a pandemic, an earthquake, a state-administration breakdown, an internal insurgency, or a cyber attack on critical infrastructure all trigger the same machinery — or none, if Cabinet judges the threshold unmet. The 44th Amendment's [@cite_44th_amendment_1978] requirement of written Cabinet recommendation was necessary but insufficient: it did not bound emergency powers by type or provide automatic lapse mechanisms.

The result is a known double failure mode. Over-breadth: the 25 June 1975 Proclamation used a war-grade framework to suspend Article 19, enable mass MISA detention, and continue for 21 months on the stated ground of "internal disturbance." Under-precision: post-1977 governments avoid Article 352 because of its 1975 association, displacing emergency-level decisions into subordinate legislation with no constitutional accountability.