What is nature of federation?

[Arooj Chaudhry]

Nature of Federation
Federation is a device to harmonize the need for local autonomy with the necessity of preserving the unity of the State. This requires that there should be government for the country as a whole to administer national affairs and other governments to look after the needs and interests of local areas in such a way that both sets of governments are supreme within their own affairs. Hence, the most important characteristic of a federation in the formal distribution of sovereign powers between the Federal government at the centre and governments of the federating units.
"A Federal constitution attempts to reconcile,
the apparently irreconcilable claims of nation sovereignty and state sovereignt."