বাংলাকে রাষ্ট্রভাষা করার দাবীতে বঙ্গবন্ধু
৩০ সেপ্টেম্বর ১৯৫৫
করাচী
The constituent assembly of Pakistan:
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman: Now, the other thing was the question of Bengali language to be declared as the State Languages of Pakistan. Here, some honourable have been speaking in Bengali and that has not been in the proceedings because there is no arrangement for speeches in Bengali. The members may speak for five hours and yet will not be in the proceedings. An assurance, however was given that Bengali will be one of the languages in which honorable Members can address the Assembly, but no arrangements have been made as yet.
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman: Now you see, sir, though we have passed seven years of our life as an independent nation but still we have not yet framed our Constitution and are under the suzerainty of her majesty the Queen of England. Our Governor-General is still appointed by Her Majesty the Queen of England. So we are giving the power to an appointed man and not to the representative of the people of Pakistan. We requested the members sitting on the Government Benches that why do not any one of you take this power; we are prepared to give you this power but they refused to accept our offer. They said that they were not prepared to take all these powers, and that these powers should be given to the Governor General who is more powerful. So, Sir, this is a fundamental point of democracy. To give all these powers to a man, who is not our representative, is against the principles of democracy and justice.
Now, I come to Judiciary. You know, Sir, in West Pakistan Unit, the Governor can appoint a tribunal if there is any election petition, consisting of the judges of the High Court and what is the power of the High Court Judges and of the Judges of the tribunal? Absolutely nothing. That tribunal will only be a recommending body leaving everything to be finally decided by the Governor. What will he do? He can pass any-order that he likes. You can feel that in this way they are not only insulting the Judiciary but they are insulting Pakistan as a whole. Now, you can easily understand the position as to how these people – our friends are giving away powers from their own hands though they are Honourable Members of this House. Now I am going to discuss with you regarding landlords. Sir, you know, they are the people who have betrayed the independence of Indo-Pakistan. There is also a provision in the Bill to the effect that the rulers of some of the areas will remain uneffected with regard to their property etc. That is, no Government can touch their property. Some of these rulers are men of crores, some are men of lakhs, some of them are living in the palatial buildings, some of them are living in London and they have their personal properties in Pakistan and at the same time what do we find of the condition of our poor people. The poor people of our country are dying of starvation; they have no shelter, they have no accommodation, they have no food; they cannot get education, even the cultivators do not get land to cultivate, they will not get the land for one man (the land-lord) will be in a position to be proprietor of 50 thousand acres of land or something like that. Now, Sir, you can easily understand the condition of Pakistan. Pakistan is for people; Pakistan is not for the rulers; it is for the poor people of Pakistan because it is they who have sacrificed their lives for the independence of Pakistan, for the achievement of Pakistan, not the rulers. As a matter of fact, some of these rulers betrayed the independence of India and Pakistan. But we are in this Bill giving them protection that nobody in this world can touch the property of rulers. Sir, you can easily understand how re-actionary a Bill you are going to pass.
Then come to the question of the salary of the Governor. We have appealed to my friends on the other side that they should not allow this 72,000 rupees yearly to be paid to the Governor. I was speaking of the rulers, who betrayed the independence the India and Pakistan. Now I come to the question of the salary of Governor. W gave an amendment and request my friends on the other side reduce it to 36,000 rupees. But they by their brute majority passed 72,000 rupees yearly, the Governor will be entitled to free houses, free car, free bearers, free servants, in short, everything is free.
Over and above this, there is a sumptuary allowance of 1000 rupees per month. Now, sir, whose money you are going to pay to one particular man? Well, I do not like to discuss this point because I have already dealt with it. This is the money of the poor refugees, the poor down trodden people of Pakistan who are dying of hunger and starvation, this money is of the poor navers of our country. Why are you going to pay this huge sum to a single man when you cannot increase the pay by Rs. 10 of the poor clerks who are drawing a very meagre salary of Rs. 75 per month? Instead of giving Rs. 72000 to one particular man, you increase Rs. 10 in the salary of these poor clerks. We request my friends on the other side to accept our considerate amendment, but they did not hear us and rejected it. Now you can easily understand the position as to where are they taking our country.
Now, I come to the question of two Acts, that is the Bengal Regulation (III) of 1818 and the Frontier Crimes Regulation Act. The Honourable Dr. Khan Sahib served for three years in jail under the Frontier Crimes Regulation Act during the British Regime but still he has considered it to be a very nice Act and again my friends are going to incorporate this Act in the One-Unit Bill which will be enforcable in the West Pakistan province. I tell you, Sir that we believe in the principle of freedom of press, freedom of judgement and freedom of everything. These Acts were made by the Britishers but still in 1955 we are keeping these blackest Acts in our statute book even after the achievement of independence. Whenever High Courts pass any order in favour of a man detained under the Safety Act and declare it to be illegal, at once, these two Acts are applied by our administrators in the respective areas for arresting that man again.
Reference:
Iqbal, S. (1997) Sheikh Mujib in Parliament (1955-58), p. 65-78, Dhaka, Agami Prakashani