‘Public Safety Act’- এর নামে এম সি এ দের আটকের প্রতিবাদে বঙ্গবন্ধুর ভাষণ
২৯ নভেম্বর ১৯৫৫
করাচী
The constituent assembly of Pakistan:
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman (East Bengal: Muslim): Mr. Speaker, Sir, I want to draw your attention that two of our Honourable Members of the Constituent Assembly have recently been arrested under the Public Safety Act. One was arrested in Dacca by a Sub-Inspector of Police just when the plane was about to take off. The plane was detained for a few minutes and Sardar Fazlul Karim was arrested from inside the plane. Another arrest took place in Karachi of Mr. Mahmud Ali, who had been living in Somerset House, and the accommodation was provided to him by Government. He was arrested in connection with the disturbances in East Bengal though it would appear that Mr. Mahmud Ali was not in any way connected with the situation prevailing in East Bengal. He had been living here with his family and was under medical treatment. Sir, this is a matter of great regret that while we are sitting here to frame the Constitution of Pakistan, two of our M. C. A, S’ are detained and God knows how long they will be detained under this blackest act. You know, Sir, that while we were discussing the privileges of the members in our Murree Session, and when Mr.Suhrawardy was the Law Minister, it was said that the members of the Constituent Assembly will enjoy the rights and privileges as the Members of the House of Commons Since, there is a convention in the House of Commons that before any member is arrested, the Speaker of the House is informed but here if seems that you as the Speaker of the Constituent Assembly are quite ignorant of the arrests; in any case you were not informed by the authorities about their arrests. WeLook up to you to maintain the Prestige of the House, prestige of the Members and ultimately the Prestige of Pakistan. Is this a democratic way of dealing with things, I ask? Is this the way in which we want to give a constitution to the public? Is this the way in which you want to give us free and fair elections? I say it is a most undemocratic action taken by the Government. You are going to detain members who are the representatives of the people in jails without trial, you can detain them firstly for six months and then you can extend the period of detention by another six months, then again if the Governor is satisfied, for another six months; in this way you can detain persons even for five years or more. I would like to draw the attention of the Honourable Prime Minister, through you, Sir that we cannot continue to work while our members are detained in Jails. It is a shame for us to sit here. Sir, today, you are the Speaker of this House and suppose tomorrow you are not and you also do not belong to the fortunate party of Muslim League or the United Front, and if you are arrested under the Public Safety Act, what will be your feelings? At present, you belong to no party, you belong to all the parties of the House and, therefore, you must uphold the cause of the prestige of the House and members of this House as well. We cannot tolerate such an action: we know how to fight against it, we know how to resist it. We shall go from here and from village to village, from town to town, we will tell the people what this Government is doing. This Government is an absolute despot. Thousands of people are being harassed and by now 120 members, our workers, have been arrested in East Bengal.
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman: I am saying that 120 members have so far been arrested in East Bengal. They have arrested Mr. Mahmud Ali from Karachi. Sardar Fazlul Karim was arrested while he was coming to Karachi to attend the session. No member is to be arrested while he is coming to attend the session and this is the privilege that I want to raise here. I want to draw the attention of the Honourable Prime Minister and other Ministers, Particularly of Mr. Fazlul Huq, that this is the breach of the privileges of the Members of the Assembly. We cannot tolerate it. On the one hand, you want us to co-operate with you in what you do and, on the other hand, you are arresting our members who do not see eye to eye with the Government. Is this justice? I say this is most objectionable attitude of the Government that we sit here for framing the Constitution for the people and two of our colleagues are detained in the jail. For whom are you going to frame the Constitution? Are you going to give freedom of speech, freedom of action to the people of Pakistan. When you do not have any other law under which you can arrest a person, you haul him under this so-called Public Safety Act. This is the blackest Act on the statute book of Pakistan. I do not know how long such an Act will continue. I want to warn you. Sir that you must do justice to all people without fear or favour. If justice fails, equity fails, fair-play fails, and then we will see how the matter is decided. I request the Prime Minister through you to do justice and take immediate action because his Government has arrested these persons and as such he has got the responsibility of seeing that these persons are immediately released though he has said that his Government is not responsible for these arrests. But the East Bengal Government has said that these arrests have been made on the bidding of the Central Government. Sir, this is the position. Where can we go now? The Prime Minister should see that these MCA, SMLAS and other persons who have been arrested are released immediately and forthwith otherwise we will have to take some other action that my leader will tell you later on.
Reference:
Iqbal, S. (1997) Sheikh Mujib in Parliament (1955-58), p. 98-101, Dhaka, Agami Prakashani