as all attempts to persuade the Hindu majority community to deal fairly with the Muslims had failed. The Quaid-e-Azam, who himself was once an ardent Congressman. came to the conclusion that the interests of the Muslims would not be safe in the hands of the Congress though that body had professed to be entirely non-communal. The result was that the Muslim community as a whole did not participate in the freedom movement to the same extent as the Congress which, on account of its continuous effort for gaining independence, had to organize itself and consequently acquired experience of leadership and party discipline. It was only from 1937 onwards that the Muslim League came to the forefront under the leadership of the Quaid-e-Azam. This was too short a period for any substantial leadership to emerge. Therefore, at the time Pakistan came into being, we did not have a sufficient number of persons experienced in the political field.
If the Quid-e-Azam had lived for a few more years or at least that Quaid-e Millat, who had been trained by the Quaid-e-Azam, had not been snatched away from us, we might have fared better. A strong opposition, which can form an alternative government, is one of the requisites for successfully working the parliamentary form, and, as Sir Ivor Jennings has pointed out, even in India, owing to the lack of an effective opposition, difficulties might arise the moment the Congress loses its position as did the Muslim League here. That all is not well with the Congress in the Indian States appears from the following extract from a speech of the Speaker of the Lok Sabha reported in the 'Statesman' of January the 2nd, 1961:
“Though we have settled down within a short period comfortably and have been working democratic institutions pretty well in our country since we attained freedom and have given unto ourselves a democratic constitution, the affairs in all the States arc not what they should be or could be desired.
“People may soon become sick of the changes in Governments caused by the manipulations of support for persons or groups to gain or regain power. If there is a constant fight for power, the people will get nothing from the Government of the day. The ruling party, as a whole, may get into disrepute on account of the factions.
“The only remedy seems to be that once a leader is elected, he ought not to be disturbed so long as that party continues to have a majority in the legislature, except for gross misconduct.
“Otherwise his rival who had been defeated in the elections for leadership of the party would go on trying to gather support for himself and try to overthrow the successful candidate and the vicious circle will continue”.
42. The modifications suggested by the second group of parliamentarians, to which reference has already been made, include the suggestions in the opinions expressed with regard to question No.2 in the questionnaire, namely, the steps to be taken to prevent the causes that led to the failure of the parliamentary system, which we, in the second chapter, promised to consider here. The said modifications may be grouped in the main as follows:—
