three Basic Principals Committee Reports, one after the other in the name of three successive Prime Ministers, even did not consist of this plan. Then Sir, where did it come from? After the first defeat of Muslim League in East Pakistan I can tell you, Sir, in all sincerity that it came about from the fertile brain of an official in spite of the claim of Malik Firoz Khan who afterwards were taken in as associate sponsors or co-sponsors of that movement. It came in the brain of one gentleman who had been an official and the attitude of officials you know very well. Their attitude first and foremost is to disregard the public opinion; and these officials do not agree to anything that Public says. So that scheme was conceived and brought out by the gentleman and he brought some other people like Mr. Firoz Khan Noon and Mr. Gurmani and others to support this Scheme. The rest we have heard from Sardar Rashid.
Now, Sir, if that is the origin and development of that scheme the earlier it dies the better for the country; the earlier it is abandoned the better for the country. Let us get rid of all conspiracies; let us get rid of all secrecies; let us be plain people. We have got the most sacred task of framing the Constitution for the people of the country. People on the other side have become intolerant and Mr. Aziz Din has shouted out all sorts of things. Even Mian Abdul Bari, the wisest man, is saying: “Why are you taking time and delaying things.” I tell them, “Do not give sermons. We know the value of time; we know more than you do the urgency and necessity of Constitution. We feel more than you do. It is you people who have been responsible for all these troubles for the last so - many years. We are not to blame for this. Did we delay things for eight years? We have not delayed for years; even if it takes one or two days it is not tolerated by you; at least we must say what we have to say on these important matters in this House.” People should know, the world should know what our attitude is towards the scheme. Our attitude to the scheme, I may tell you briefly, Sir. In the context of the scheme there is lack of confidence in the mind of the people in East Bengal which is still persisting. When the Basic Principles Committee's Report in the year 1950 for the first time came up, you know. Sir, there was conflagration in the whole of East Bengal; hundreds and thousands of meetings were held in every village, in every home, in every thana, subdivision and in every district against the Basic Principles Committee's Report. We also held a conference at Dacca called the Grand National Convention over which I had the honor to preside. Mr. Fazlul Haq also delivered speeches in that meeting; we held that conference for three days in the month of November, 1950, and there we discussed that the Constitution of Pakistan should be based on regional territories, regional autonomy. One region is East Pakistan and the other should be West Pakistan. We did not want to impose anything on these people; we just left it at that. We said it will be the desire of our brethren in West Pakistan to frame the pattern of Government that they want to have, either federation or confederation, zonal or sub-federation, whatever they like, but it must be entirely left to the people, left to the free will of the people. That was our position in the year 1950, five years ago, and we still persist on that idea, Sir. You know, Sir, what were the Basic principles on which we got our elections-the historic 21point programme which have been described by our leaders here in this House. Some of them have said that they do not know about 21-point programme and Mr. Daultana has said in his speech that if you want to place your autonomy on 21-point programme, then we will also have to reconsider our position; if
