... Sir, in this present context I will tell you that so far as the people of East Bengal are concerned, I mean the people of Pakistan as a whole. I divide them into two groupsautonomists and the Centralists.
Honourable Deputy Speaker: What are they?
Mr. Ataur Rahman Khan: They are the Centralists and the autonomists, and about 6% crores of people are autonomists who believe in the autonomy of the respective regions, and against this background, as I understand, there are four divisions of people also. These four divisions are enumerated as follows:
Firstly, Common Pakistanis are generally autonomists, and they are always dubbed as provincialists.
Secondly, Indo-Pakistani capitalists. They are Centralists in view of the fact that their intention is truly to exploit the resources unhampered and uncontrolled of the producer of the raw materials.
Thirdly, Pakistani feudal lords-their interest is not against Defense and Foreign Affairs. They want to have some job and also for defense purposes.
Fourthly, the common Indo-Pakistan. -This group is generally known as Muhajirs, who are in a miserable plight. They are generally utilized for certain political purposes and when their purpose does not suit them, they are sometimes dubbed as Indian agents unfortunately. If I am in power I want to utilize some of them and if he does not line up with me or my ideas, I call him an Indian agent, saying that he has one leg there and the other leg here, and as such what can be expected of him. So, there are four classes of people. You will find from this division that autonomists are about 90 per cent of people, because common Pakistanis are autonomists. They want to live and let others live. It is the right, of self-determination of the people to be autonomous. By autonomy understand not in the context in which Pir Mohammad Ali Rashdi or Mr. Hamidul Huq Choudhury has said....
I have already told that it is going to be a charter of perpetual slavery. It contains provisions which are anti-Islamic and anti-democratic and I will analyze these. (Interruption) Who else can do it better than one who feels for autonomy? One who has skipped 1,500 miles to become a Minister by fluke, he cannot think of autonomy. So I will have to give an analysis of autonomy.
Sir, political terms have their own connotations against certain backgrounds. In this House ten persons can give ten definitions of democracy and all of them will be accepted by certain number of persons. We should not be bothered about connotations. The most vital question is the geography of the country and the last eight years of the sufferings of the people of East Bengal. Had the two zones been contiguous I would have preferred a unitary form of Government-one country, one Government, one vote, one economy.....
So, Sir, but for the geography of the country, unitary form of government would have been an ideal arrangement. Situated as we are, we must have a federation and federation postulates strong regional autonomous wings in the country. Unfortunately, our friends
