“পূর্ব বাংলার জন্য ৪০ শতাংশ চাকরীর পদ রাখার কথা থাকলেও পাঁচ শতাংশও হচ্ছেনা”- বঙ্গবন্ধুর তথ্যবহুল প্রতিবাদ
২৪ সেপ্টেম্বর ১৯৫৫
করাচী
The constituent assembly of Pakistan:
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman: Sir, you know that in West Pakistan there are some particular areas of which the people are not so much educated as the people of some other places. You will understand that some friends on the Government side have declared in this House that some of the officers of some of the places are working against this one-Unit. You must remember that some of the officers, particularly belonging to higher services, may be working against One-Unit and may he mobilizing opinion against this One-Unit. Now Sardar Rashid wants some provision for security of employment made for all the services. Now, there are areas where people are not so very capable and so they should get some security of their service. One example was that in Bengal, you remember, the Hindus were educated and advanced and the Muslims fought for reservation of seats for Muslims. Now take the case of Central Government of Pakistan so far as services are concerned, the last Muslim League Government have passed that 40 percent of services will be reserved for East Bengal people although their population is 56 percent. But I do not believe that even 5 percent of the services are manned by East Bengal people in Central Government if there is an impartial inquiry made. Is it the contention that the people of East Bengal should not get justice? Now there is the province of Frontier, Sind, Bahawalpur and there are other areas also like tribal areas and Baluchistan of which the people are not well educated and the people of Punjab have got money and the backing of high officials behind them: they have the Governor behind them. Now there is some kind of nepotism among officer and these officers from a certain area may help people belonging to certain parts. They are the people who may not do justice. But there must be fair play; there must be justice and equity. They say that they will do all good things and justice and fair play will be there and it would be a sort of heaven and we will give these backward areas services and safeguard. If that is their intention then what is the harm if this amendment is accepted and incorporated? Sir, there is the amendment (a) that for a period of 10 years from the commencement of this Act a suitable number of posts shall be reserved in all provincial and Superior Services for the bonafide residents of those various areas. Now there is a competition for superior services on all Pakistan basis. Now it is possible although I do not want to reflect on any one-that the people of Frontier may not get justice. I do not believe that they will get justice because everywhere there is some nepotism and corruption going on in Pakistan. Now, Sir, His Excellency Mr. Gurmani has argueed that he going to be the Governor of West Pakistan and he will see to it that these things are carried out. I do not know how long he will continue to be the Governor of this One-Unit. May be that he himself does not know. With the grace of Allah he may go out and he may find that he is not the Governor of this province. He may become the Ambassador to France; he may be sent out as Ambassador. It happens and it is happening that those who are in the service of the Government as Ministers or Governors are sent out as Ambassadors. They must get service as Ambassadors of Pakistan and it seems Pakistan has sufficient money to spend on these embassies in foreign exchange. They must spend money on this.
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman: Now there are Chief Secretaries in provinces. There is a Chief Secretary in the Frontier is a Chief Secretary in Sind and there are Home Secretaries Frontier and Sind. There may be some Secretaries of apartments who may not be in the good book of administrators of West Pakistan Unit. They can use this Bill and at once put them in subordinate positions as Deputy Secretaries or Under Secretaries. There may be some officers who might be good friends of Sardar Abdur Rashid in the Frontier because he was the Chief Minister. Now, Sir, the Central Government have dismissed the Chief Minister Sardar Abdur Rashid, as he did not look eye to eye with the Central Government. Now what the Government will do is that they will bring charges against those people who were in the good book of Sardar Abdur Rashid and One-Unit Scheme harass them on the plea that these people were against the one unit scheme.
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman (East Bengal: Muslim): Sir, I will finish my speech within two minutes on the amendment of Sardar Abdur Rashid Khan. Sir, I had expressed my view that there must be some guarantee to the areas which are now being unified in West Pakistan Unit because there are some misunderstandings in the minds of the people living in these Areas that their rights and claims will not be safe-guarded with regard services and that the people of a particular area will dominate in the services and the claims of Frontier, Sind and other places will completely be ignored, Sir, I must congratulate Sardar Abdul Rashid Khan for bringing forward this amendment. Sir, he has said that ‘further recruitment from outside shall only be made if candidates of requisite qualifications are not available locally’. He has given this suggestion that if the qualified candidates are not available from these particular areas, then these candidates can be appointed form other areas. I must say that it is a very good amendment and a considerate too and I would once again congratulate him for bringing forward such a considerate amendment. He is not partisan. He has come with a very logical idea. Sir, I do not like to say anything more. But I must say again that there must be a reservation in the services for these areas otherwise there will be no guarantee for their safeguard in the services as you have seen in the central Government. Though there is a reservation of 40 percent, for the people of East Bengal in the Central Services, but they are not getting this percentage.
Now, Sir, as far as the Public Service Commission is concerned who is going to appoint this body? It will be appointed by His Excellency the Governor of the Punjab. It might be that he would appoint some persons from the minor provinces or rest of the areas may not get chance to be appointed in that Commission with the result that they may appoint persons of only some particular areas against certain vacancies ignoring the claims of the persons from say, Sind Frontier, Baluchistan, etc. Sir, why the Muslims in the undivided Bengal were entitled to the reservation of 55 percent of the vacancies in the Services? This safeguard was made only to give the Muslims of Bengal their due share in the administration of that province. Similarly, Sir, there are fears in the minds of the people of Khairpur, Bahawalpur, Sind, Baluchistan, etc. Some of the minority areas are apprehending that when all these areas will be amalgamated into one province West Pakistan, they might not get justice from the hands of persons belonging to some particular area or areas. For this Sardar Abdur Rashid has provided in his amendment, part (b) that subordinate ‘services shall be recruited locally within each Division, and the recruitment shall be restricted to the bonafide residents of the Division’. Sir, it is a very good provision that if there are any posts vacant in any Division – West Pakistan unit will have 11 Divisions and the 11 Divisions will be in such a way that some areas of the Frontier will be one Division, some areas of the Punjab will be one Division, and some areas of Khairpur will be another Division and so will be the Divisions in respect of the areas comprising Bahawalpur and Karachi — those vacancies should be filled in by the candidates of that particular Division. If it is agreed to that if the Divisions concerned would make recruitment of officers from their Divisions or areas, the poor people of those areas or Divisions will get some justice otherwise how a man from the interior of Sind be recruited in Lahore. Naturally the people from the interior of Sind will not get justice and the local people of Lahore will naturally have the upper hand in getting appointments because they will have easy access to appear before recruiting agencies or boards without incurring anything where as the poor people of the other far-flung areas can hardly afford money for their passage to go to Lahore for interview, etc. for the posts of peons, chaprasis and orderlies or other class IV posts. You can see in Karachi, which is a Federal Capital, how many peons, chaprasis, orderlies or clerks are from East Bengal? Naturally they cannot come to Karachi for these posts from 1,500 miles away. They cannot spend 200 rupees for coming to Karachi for appearing in interviews and then going back to East Bengal in the event of their non selection, by spending another 200 rupees. For this reason 99 percent of class IV and class III employees, like peons, chaprasis, clerks, etc. and being recruited in the Central Government offices here in Karachi are form West Pakistan accepting that we are getting some persons in Superior Services. Though in Superior Services also we are entitled to 56 percent but we are not getting more than 5 percent. That is the general policy of the Government.
Mr. Chairman (Mr. Abdus Sattar): You have reached your time limit.
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman: Time-limit is ten minutes and think I have still got two minutes more. Within 2 minutes I will finish my speech. So, Sir, this is the position in the Central Government. Because we are living 1,500 miles away from this place, we are not getting our share in the lower services. Similarly people of the far-flung areas of the Frontier province, such as Swat, Kohat and other places cannot arrange money for their passage to come over to Lahore for getting appointments like chaprasis, peons, orderlies, clerks or any other class IV and class III services. So, Sir, these two parts of Sardar Abdur Rashid’s amendment are very good for the purpose of safeguarding the claims and rights of the poor people of minority areas, and I would sincerely request that their misunderstanding should be removed by accepting the amendment of Sardar Abdur Rashid because they fear that they will not get justice, particularly I would request the good will of Mr. Gurmani, the Governor designate of the West Pakistan Unit. I know he is a very good and honest man; people say so – and also other of his friends of the Government Benches, that is, the friends of United Front party and the Muslim League party, to accept the amendment of Sardar Abdur Rashid in toto and create some good-will between the people of Frontier, between the people of Sind, the people of Bahawalpur and the people of the Punjab and other areas, with these few words! Would once more appeal to my friends on the other side to accept these two provisions of Sardar Abdur Rashid’s amendment. Do not create misunderstanding in the minds of the people of these areas otherwise there will be some chaos in the country. The may be some chaos for the sake of One-Unit. If you want to govern peacefully, then do justice to the minority provinces. Do not govern them by manipulation. You are amalgamating these provinces into one unit by manipulation. So remove their misunderstandings by accepting this amendment.
Reference:
Iqbal, S. (1997) Sheikh Mujib in Parliament (1955-58), p. 40-51, Dhaka, Agami Prakashani