‘Provinces’ শব্দের পরিবর্তে ‘States’ ব্যবহার করার দাবী
২ ফেব্রুয়ারি ১৯৫৬
করাচী
The constituent assembly of Pakistan:
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman: We are discussing the whole Bill and why one part be postponed and the other be taken up and why there should be any desire for the sense of the House when the Bill is there it should be discussed from start to the finish. They have got brute majority and they may carry it through.
(Honourable Deputy Speaker: Why are you coming in between the House and the Chair, I can do nothing about it; the House has to decide.)
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman: I want to draw your attention to the fact that why you want to pass over this or that part. You start from the first clause one by one. We want to start from the first part and they have brute majority and they may say that they want to start from the third part or the fourth part.
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman: We want to draw your attention to it we want to discuss Part I and they may say we want to pass over that part and because they have brute majority they can pass Part III or part IV.
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman: You are, Sir, curtailing our activities in this House because you have got the authority to do so. Now, Sir, the reason why I am supporting the amendment of Mr. Abul Mansur Ahmad is this that we have provided these fundamental rights for the citizens of Pakistan. If not, for whom have you provided these fundamental rights? Therefore, obviously we have to give the definition of citizenship as to who shall be the citizens whom you would recognise. These fundamental rights are not merely meant for the M. C. As. of the Constituent Assembly but they are primarily meant for 7 crores of the people of Pakistan, or sir. is it meant only for Ministers and Parliamentary Secretaries of the Central and Provincial Governments? so, Sir, my submission is that the Honourable Law Minister may accept the amendment moved by Mr. Abul Mansur Ahmad in view of the interests of the people at large.
(Mr. Farid Ahmad (East Bengal: Muslim): You were also once a Minister.)
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman: The Honourable Law Minister will appreciate my point that when we are discussing the fundamental rights of the citizens of Pakistan, then a definition, as I told earlier of the citizens as to who are the citizens of Pakistan is necessary to know whether anybody who claims to be a citizen of Pakistan has got the right as such or not. In the absence of any proper definition of citizenship the Government might say anybody or for that matter to me that ‘O Mr. Mujibur Rahman, you are not a citizen of Pakistan and, therefore, you get out of Pakistan’, In view of this I would request the Honourable Law Minister again to accept the amendment of Mr. Abul Mansur Ahmad.
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman: Kindly allow me to move this one. Mr. Zahiruddin will move his own. Sir, we find both in the United States of America and also India they have used the word “States” and I fail to understand why they have given the name of “Province” to the two units that we have got in East Bengal and West Pakistan. This name is given by the leaders sitting to my left side, not on your left side. We have two units-one, in West Pakistan and the other in East Bengal and instead of calling them “Provinces” We want to call them “States”. They say, Sir, that these two provinces will get autonomy – they claim that they are giving provincial autonomy to these two provinces-but nobody is going to accept it in name; we are not getting any autonomy even in name and that is why they do not like to say that we will be a State.I know, Sir, whether you allow me to speak one or two or any number of hours they will not accept it. I know that, Sir, Still, Sir, it is my duty as a member of the House and as people’s representative to ask them to accept it and I want to point out that even in a federal form of Government everywhere a province is named as a “State”. Even they can do it and this is my personal request to the Honourable Law Minister to accept it and persuade his friends to do so. I do not know whether his friends will be persuaded or not, but he can persuade them to accept my amendment. They can accept it by substituting State Legislatures and State Governments for provincial Legislatures and provincial governments respectively. I think nobody should object to it. I know that it will be defeated if put to vote. Still I will request the House to accept it. You have taken away everything. You have not given provincial autonomy also. Now even the names you want to take away. Sir I have nothing more to say, excepting that I request Mr. Chundrigar to accept my amendment. You see I am not a liar and I have not taken more than five minutes as you had granted me to.
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman: I am not going to loose because I will get many chances to speak! Sir, already my friend has spoken about this: that we want equality before the law for all citizens. That is the first and fundamental point. Sir, many times in this House it has been decided even by some leaders on the other side that it is an Islamic Republic of Pakistan and that it is a democratic Constitution that we are giving to the country a very nice thing because if it is the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, then every citizen of Pakistan has got equal rights. In a democratic country, in a democratic Constitution, every citizen has equal rights before the law, except when there is a monarchy or a dictatorial government, when of course no question of rights arises. What, Sir, we fear and why we put forward this amendment is because we are seeing in this Draft constitution that in some places we are curtailing some rights of some citizens of this country. Sir, I would only add here that all the citizens of Pakistan whether they be Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists or any others must get equal rights and equal citizenship and they must get equality before the law. That is our point of view. Sir, it might be that today they are in power; tomorrow somebody else may come into power. We are giving a Constitution to 7.5 crores of Pakistanis and there should be no question of Muslims or Hindus about that; all are Pakistanis. We all feel strongly about this and that is the reason why everyone of us has given this amendment, because we are giving a Constitution to our people now. Sir, I appeal to the Honourable Mr. Chundrigar that every time he should not be biased by party discipline. I hope his party men will give their consent to agree in this case. At least our amendments are good amendments and they are intended for the common good of all Pakistani. This is my point of view. He has been saying that he is giving us a democratic Constitution though he has been saying many things against his conscience. I hope that we can at least appeal to him to accept our this simple amendment that “The State shall not discriminate against any citizen on account only of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth.” If you like you can add another sub-clause to the same effect and we will accept it, At least we can expect that democratic attitude from the Law Minister. Even though the Constitution may be undemocratic in other respects, if he accepts our amendment we will still accept it. We hope that he will accept our amendment.
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman: Many of my friends have supported the amendment of Honourable Mr. Abul Mansur Ahmad about the fundamental question of our Constitution and the country as a whole. Sir, for these few lines for which we depend absolutely on you, what will be the position of the citizens of Pakistan, With respect to freedom of speech, freedom of expression, association and other things, Sir, I want to draw your attention to that. There are so many friends sitting on the left side of mine.
(Honourable Deputy Speaker: They will never attend to you.)
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman: They will never. After the argument of Mr. Abul Mansur Ahmad they cannot exclude the freedom of the press from the Constitution. They should not, after the arguments of Mr. Fazlur Rahman and other friends of mine. As to the meaning of expression and that of the press, categorical explanation has been given by our friends on this side of the House. We have tasted the small quantity of freedom that we got within the last eight years under the rule of the Muslim League. Sir, we have had the foretaste of what is called freedom. The same way, we say you are free man of a free country and at the same time they impose Section 144 on us so that we cannot hold a public meeting, in the interest of the public order, in the interest of the security of Pakistan. So, this is the position that is always happening. You know, last year when they imposed Section 92-A, all Opposition papers were gagged by the Government in the “interest of public order”. I am sure Mr. Hamidul Huq Choudhury will recollect that time when the Government was after him because for sometime his paper was anti-government. Now that he is a Minister, it is possible that he may forget it. Sir, all this is happening in Pakistan. We try to hold meetings and they impose restrictions.
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman: I want to cite instances because we have to be careful for the future. A day may come when the party in power may find themselves in the Opposition Benches and the same restrictions may be applied to them. We are not criticising simply for the purpose off criticising. We are opposing with good intention the present provisions because we will be part and parcel of the new set-up. Because you are in a majority you say “no, no” to all that we suggest. Sometimes they should have the courtesy of accepting our amendments.
Reference:
Iqbal, S. (1997) Sheikh Mujib in Parliament (1955-58), p. 135-141, Dhaka, Agami Prakashani