Another point raised against me is-
“You were the Agent of the Centre. The popularity of the Agent should have meant the popularity of the principal. Your conduct, however, brought about the opposite result. It created the impression among the population of East Pakistan that to get anything for them, a continual battle had to be waged against an unwilling and an unsympathetic Centre. Not once did you mention to them my real feelings in regard to the development of East Pakistan and the urgency and importance I gave to it. Not once did you try convincingly to explain to (hem the limitations of our resources, the struggle we have to put up to get resources from abroad, the restrictions that other countries placed on tying up their grants and loans, to particular projects, or the implications of an integrated economy planned on a national basis. You say that you worked with “utmost loyalty and devotion". May I modify it by saying that you worked with “utmost energy and zeal. I am afraid, that ‘loyalty and devotion' to the higher cause got sacrificed at the altar of personal popularity. The results were inevitable. I warned you repeatedly of the dangers inherent in your approach. The anti-Pakistan elements were quick to exploit this situation, and by their activities were making a bid to loosen discipline in East Pakistan to jeopardize the national interest. When this happened you started evading controversial issues connected with law and order.”
All your policies were duly projected and implemented by me, but wherever I honestly disagreed with your views 1 did not hesitate to express them frankly and fully. Throughout my attempt has been to look to the interests of the people and the country and not to those of any particular individual. It is absolutely clear in everyone's mind without any doubt that the credit for the work done by me in both wings of Pakistan has all gone to the credit of the Regime and to you. It was not necessary for me to go out of my way to flatter you as you are personally aware that I am not given to flattery, a fact which I have repeated to you on many occasions. If you feel dissatisfied with this policy, I am not disturbed in mind as I have done what God and the country expected me to do.
I see no justification whatsoever in your remark about my loyalty and devotion. When you managed to get three extensions in the tenure of your Command as C-in-C, although it was against army traditions and considerably prejudiced my chances of promotion, I did not apply for release but continued to serve with the same energy and zeal’ sacrificing personal interest at the altar of ‘loyalty and devotion to the higher cause’.
I also hope that you have not forgotten when in 1958 I was drawn into the Revolution I had to go to the extent of risking my life and sacrificing my army career for the cause of the country and the nation. Again when you deprived me of my permanent commission in the Armed Forces ordering my premature compulsory retirement in February, 1960, according to army regulations 1 was perfectly fit for a much longer tenure. I did not question your action but made a personal sacrifice, rather than create a situation whereby the nation might have suffered, as we were at the time passing through a very delicate period.
Unfortunately you always seem to lake counsel from your imaginary fears. Although I have resigned, my popularity seems to be haunting you. Judging from the contents of
