“গভর্নর জনপ্রতিনিধি নন” – গভর্নরকে সর্বময় ক্ষমতা দেবার বিপক্ষে বঙ্গবন্ধুর ভাষণ
১ অক্টোবর ১৯৫৫
করাচী
The constituent assembly of Pakistan:
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman (East Bengal: Muslim): Sir, supporting the amendment of Mr. Ataur Rahman Khan, I will request my honourable friends on the other side with due respect and there are three leaders on that side, that these amendments are based on true principle of democracy. This is a sovereign body and we who are in the Opposition and who are not Ministers – they are ministers and it is for their safeguards that Mr. Ataur Rahman has come out with this amendment. Well, my friends on other side may say that it is right that we are on the
Govt Benches today, but tomorrow there may be someone else. But I say that they are in power today, and in their safeguard that we are moving this amendment. Sir you must have seen during the short history of eight years of Pakistan Governors have dismissed Ministers without assigning any whatsoever. We have also seen at the Centre how sometimes Governor-General has dismissed some Ministries. Sir, you know that it is a democratic country. The Prime Minister has declared that he will fight for democracy and for upholding the democratic principles and definitely every member of the House will also join him in that fight for democracy. In view of that, sir, I request them to accept the amendments. Sir, you can easily understand who is going to be the Governor-General – an appointed man. Now who is the Prime Minister? Prime Minister is the man who is the representative of the people and in whom people have confidence and in whom even the members of this House have confidence because they have elected him by a majority and so we want to give these powers to him and not to a man who is not a representative of the people but has been appointed by Her Majesty the Queen of England. Now, Sir, how is it possible for the people of Pakistan to expect justice from a man who is not their representative. So, for the principles of democracy, I support this amendment. Sir, we want the Governor-General to be a figurehead and he must act on the advice of Ministers and Cabinet.
You know how these powers were created, and were given to Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah. Now you can understand, Sir, that the man of the calibre of Quaid-i-Azam who achieved this State of Pakistan for us and who had every love for the progress and prosperity of Pakistan and who sacrificed all for achievement, if he had lived all these people would have believed that they would receive justice from him and nobody would be objected to that. Now, Sir, those people who captured power manipulation, by intrigue, by forming cliques or by dishonest means and became Governor-General, they will not have respect for democratic principles. Now they made no sacrifice for Pakistan and there may be a particular man who may have suppressed the independence movement of Indo-Pakistan and if incidentally he becomes the Governor-General, we can never expect from him. So we do not want to give those powers to a particular man who is not responsible to the people. We can not expect honey from the teeth of snake. From there we can only expect poison. So it is for these reasons that we want to give power to our friends who have every chance of being dismissed on today or tomorrow. It is only for their safeguard that we want to give them power. It is not out of any mercy for them or that we have some affection for them, but it is on a question of principle – principle of democracy that we are giving them these powers. Now in the One Unit Bill we have given all these powers to one man-the Governor-and today we are going to give these powers to the Governor-General. If this process continues, I do not know where the country will go, and what will happen to Pakistan. If we do this the responsibility for that would fall on the representatives of the people. If we give this power to the Prime Minister who is a member of this House we can discuss it with him but what will happen if they are given to the Governor-General. One fine morning the Governor-General may send a notice to the members of the constituent Assembly that since you are after curtailing my powers, you are not working properly and you are dismissed. If we give these powers to him, he will say that you were going to curtail my powers, I have no respect for you people and so you are dismissed here and now. What will be the consequences of that and what will be the fate of!! What will be the fate of democracy in this country? I know this much from the Prime Minister of Pakistan that this power to the Governor-General, can he not destroy deemocracy in Pakistan? We are telling him from the opposition take power in your own hands, give power to the cabinet, to the representatives of the people, not to a particular as man who has no responsibility to the people of Pakistan. I appeal to the Honourable Law Minister for whom people say the knows what is democracy, but of course I do not know because, I have not worked with him, but I can appeal to him through that he may request his friends who have become Ministers are thinking of becoming Prime Minister, to convince them that we are giving powers to them and they can utilize it. If they do no accept, what can we do?
Mr. Abdul Aleem: You will have a chance.
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman: Definitely that time is coming very soon. They have accidentally come into power. But we will come to power not by accident. We have suffered and we have every chance. You have come to power there by mere fluke, by manipulations and intrigues. We have undergone sufferings, we have suffered bullets and definitely we will come to power, then the people’s representatives will come into power. You can bluff some people for sometime but you cannot bluff everybody for all time.
I may tell you; Sir, you are a member of the United Front party, these people promised the people of East Pakistan on this particular point that they will be for abolition of section 92-A and not giving power to the Governor-General. This was a promise made all over East Bengal when the general elections were held there, Section 92-A was imposed on East Bengal by the Pakistan Government only after two months. The clique at the Centre imposed section 92-A regime on East Bengal not for the benefit of the people, but in order to keep power in their hands. You have not suffered, we have suffered and suffered considerably. We are ready to give power to him, not to the Governor-General. I do not wish to say anything about my friend, Mr. Aleem, personally. He is a very great friend of mine. If he minds it, I will not say it.
People have elected their representatives and one fine morning we see in the paper, the Governor-General is satisfied and section 92-A is imposed and arrests are made. I appeal to them in the name of democracy, in the name of Pakistan: “Do not give power to a particular man who is not your representative. I warn you my time is coming very soon and you will reap the consequences. Therefore, I appeal to you to accept it for your sake, for the sake of the country, for the sake of your prestige. With these few words I support the amendment.
Reference:
Iqbal, S. (1997) Sheikh Mujib in Parliament (1955-58), p. 79-90, Dhaka, Agami Prakashani