Government being entrusted with the three subjects of Defense, Foreign Affairs and Currency. It is the same objective of having a strong and vigorous Pakistan that requires that due regard be paid to the facts of geography by granting full regional autonomy to the regions in order to enable them to have complete control in all matter relating to economic management.
I cannot too strongly emphasize the imperative necessity of removing economic injustices, if we are to put our society back on an even keel. The 11-point programme of the students for which I have expressed support contains proposals regarding the reordering of the economic and education system. These demands stem from the basic urge for the attainment of economic justice.
I would, however, like at this time to confine myself to outlining the constitutional changes, which are necessary for the attainment of economic justice, between man and man and between region and region.
The centralisation of economic management has steadily aggravated the existing economic injustices to the point of crisis. I need hardly dilate on the subject of the 22 families, who have already achieved considerable notoriety both at home and abroad on account of the concentration of wealth in their hands resulting from their ready access to the corridors of power. Monopolies and cartels have been created and a capitalist system has been promoted, in which the gulf between the privileged few and the suffering multitude of workers and peasants has been greatly widened. Gross injustices have also been inflicted on Hast Pakistan and the minority provinces of West Pakistan.
The existence of per capita income disparity between East and West Pakistan is known to all. As early as 1959-60, the Chief Economist of the Planning Commission estimated that the real per capita income disparity between East and West Pakistan was 60%. The Mid-Plan Review made by the Planning Commission and other recent documents show that the disparity in real per capita income has been steadily increasing and, therefore, would be much higher than 60 % today. Underlying such disparity is the disparity in general economic structure and infrastructure of the two regions, in the rates of employment, in facilities for education, and in medical and welfare services. To give just a few examples, power generating capacity in West Pakistan is 5 to 6 times higher than in East Pakistan; the number of hospital beds in 1966 in West Pakistan was estimated to be 26,200 while that in East Pakistan was estimated to be 6,900; between 1961-1966, only 18 Polytechnic Institutes were established in East Pakistan as against 48 in West Pakistan. Further, the disparity in the total availability of resources has been even higher. More than 80% of all foreign aid has been utilized in, West Pakistan in addition to the net transfer of East Pakistan's foreign exchange earnings to West Pakistan. This made it possible for West Pakistan over 20 years to import Rs. 3,109 crore worth of goods against the total export earnings of Rs. 1,337 crore, while during the same period East Pakistan imported Rs. 1,210 crore worth of goods as against its total export earnings of Rs. 1,650 crore. All these facts underline the gross economic injustice which has been done to East Pakistan. There has been a failure to discharge the constitutional obligation to remove disparity between the provinces in the shortest possible time. The Annual
