অন্যায্য বেতন কাঠামো নিয়েপার্লামেন্টে শুরু থেকেই প্রতিবাদী বক্তব্য দিতে থাকেন বঙ্গবন্ধু। তিনি বলেন, গভর্নরকে মাসে ৬০০০ টাকা দেবেন আর গরিবেরা ক্ষুধায় মরবে তা হতে পারেনা; ঘোষিত ইসলামিক দেশে তো নয়ই। এছাড়া আরও কিছু তথ্য রয়েছে নীচের ভাষণে।
২৮ সেপ্টেম্বর ১৯৫৫, করাচী।
The constituent assembly of Pakistan:
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman (East Bengal: Muslim): Sir, I want to support the amendment of Mr. Abul Mansur Ahmed about the salaries of Governors of West Pakistan and other provinces. Sir, the amendment has suggested that the Governor should get only Rs. 3,000 per month. You know, Sir, the Governors are getting and will get Rs. 6,000 per month with free furnished bungalow and also other things free. Sir, we declare to the world that we are an Islamic country and we will follow Islamic principles. Now, is it following the Islamic principles that you give Rs. 6,000 to the Governor while the poor people of our country are dying of starvation and hunger? Sir, the people of my country have not got any shelter. They cannot get food, they cannot get clothe and sometimes respectable women have to sell their honour for food and cloth. Now, sir, whose money is it that we are going to spend? It is the money of the poor cultivators of this country-the jute and cotton cultivators and it is the money of the common man who pays taxes and out of those taxes we are going to pay Rs. 6.000 per month to the Governor. Sir, we Pretend that we are an Islamic country, but a peon here gets Rs. 50 per month, an orderly gets Rs. 70 per month, a clerk gets Rs. 100 or Rs. 150 and in this Islamic country these leaders of Islam will get Rs. 6,000 per month. Now is it Islam, about which are boasting too much and about which we are declaring from house-tops.
Sir, that great Chinese Leader, Mao Tse Tung, the Chairm of 60 crore of people of his country, only gets Rs. 500 per mon of course with free furnished house and other things which Governors and Governor-General are also getting here. But the in this country of 7 crores and 50 lakhs where 95 per cent of the people are suffering from different diseases and cannot get any medicine and shelter we are going to pay to the Governors Rs. 6,000 per month. Sir, when I move at night in this city of Karachi, I see citizens of Pakistan lying on the footpaths under the open sky and side by side there are palatial buildings with beautiful cars. This is the position in an Islamic country. Here our Ambassadors get Rs. 9,000 a month. Sir, this is the salary of our Ambassador at Washington and in that rich country of America, President Eisenhower get less than that. Sir, you cannot understand the position. I will ask my friends not to insult Islam any more. You have no right to talk of Islam when you are going to pay Rs. 6,000 to your Governors.
Sir, I tell you an instance to illustrate the economic condition of the country. A few days ago in Punjab there were 57 vacancies for labourers and for those 57 vacancies 5,000 people came. Now we cannot provide employment to all of them, we cannot give them food and clothes and we are giving fat salaries to our great leaders, many of them are rich people and they can sacrifice that money for the sake of the country. They can work without taking anything, not even a single penny, from the Government and they can continue the administration. They have got lot of money their banks, but still they will take the money which the pour people have given. Whose money is that? It is of the people. Whose Pakistan is that? It belongs to the poor.
Reference:
Iqbal, S. (1997) Sheikh Mujib in Parliament (1955-58), p. 59-64, Dhaka, Agami Prakashani