97 বাংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্রঃ দ্বিতীয় খন্ড CHAPTER IV FORM OF GOVERNMENT-UNITARY OR FEDERAL 54.......................................... Analysis of View 55. In the questionnaire, the difference between federal and quasi-federal was not pointed out, but the trend of opinion clearly shows that the federal form was regarded, by those who replied to the questionnaire, as equivalent to the form adopted in the late Constitution, and that was also the standard kept in view by those who made statements before us. On an analysis of the various opinions, both in the statements recorded by us and the replies to the questionnaire, we find that the preponderance of view is in favor of the federal form with a centre as strong as, if not stronger than, that of the late Constitution. Tabulating the opinions, irrespective of their being in favor of a parliamentary or a presidential pattern, we find that 65.5% were in favor of the federal and 34.5% in favor of the unitary form. Regarding the units of the federation, 88.4% were for the two units as they existed at the time of abrogation of the late Constitution-East and West Pakistan- while 8.6% favored the breaking up of the One Unit. 2.3% wanted to break up both East and West Pakistan into several units, while 7% suggested that East Pakistan should be broken up into units but the One Unit of West Pakistan should be preserved. As regards the distribution of powers, which gives an indication as to whether it should be a federation of a strong, or a loose type, the opinions were as follows. Distribution of powers as per the late Constitution was favored by 53.5%; while 8% were for giving the Centre more subjects than as in the late Constitution; 3.2% were for giving the residuary powers also to the Centre, while 1.2% wanted to empower the Centre to withdraw powers from the provinces. Thus 61.5% were in favor of a Centre as strong as, if not stronger than, that of the late Constitution, while 38.5% opined that the provinces should be autonomous; the powers of the Centre being confined to Defense, Foreign Affairs and Currency. Of the witnesses examined before us, however, there were only 23 who were in favor of such a weak Centre-18 from East Pakistan and 5 from West Pakistan. The rest of the opinions of this subject came from the replies-765 out of a total number of 1,357 from East Pakistan and 194 out of 974 from the West. 56. Views expressed in favor of a unitary government may be stated as follows, Pakistan was demanded, and achieved, on the fundamental basis that the Muslims of the sub-continent constituted a nation and were, therefore, entitled to the right of selfdetermination in areas where they were in a majority. That being so, it is but necessary to have one government though the two wings are separated by over a thousand miles of foreign territory. The differences in language and the regional interests, which have existed and unfortunately been encouraged during the past years, can best be subordinated to the national interest only by having a unitary form of government. The official delegation strongly advocated this type and, is doing so. pointed out that a very disquieting feature of the political development in this country over the past years was the growing power of the provinces in opposition to the authority of the Centre, resulting in
