| শিরোনাম | সূত্র | তারিখ |
|---|---|---|
| যুক্ত নির্বাচন বিল | পাকিস্তান গণপরিষদ | ১০ ও ১১ই অক্টোবর, ১৯৫৬ |
Joint Electorate Bill in National Assembly in Pakistan
10th and 11th October, 1956.
Excerpts from the speech of Mr. H. S. Suhrawardy: Sir, I beg to move:
“That the Bill to provide for the principle of electorate in elections to the National Assembly and Provincial Assemblies be taken into consideration.”
It may appear strange to those who have not been able to adapt themselves to the change in political outlook resultant on the creation of Pakistan, that I, who was an advocate of the two-nation theory in undivided India, and whose contribution to the creation of Pakistan was perhaps not insignificant, and who believed in separate electorate in undivided India, should advocate joint electorate in Pakistan as a salutary constitutional principle. Undoubtedly separate electorate formed the cardinal creed of the Muslim of undivided India, and was strongly advocated with irrefutable logic by Sir Abdulla Suhrawardy in his minute of dissent to the Simon Report as early as 1918-19. but it was not based on the two-nation theory as such a theory advocated as late as 1940 in the political document known as the Lahore Resolution. Separate electorate was a device to secure proper representation in the Legislatures for the Muslim minority; it took something away from the majority population; it was certainly never meant to be a device to safeguard the interests of a majority population. Although the Lahore Resolution appeared to endorse the two-nation theory, it actually never did so; it threw it overboard when it visualized in the same Resolution that minorities would be left behind in the two countries of Pakistan and India. The two-nation theory carried to its logical conclusion would have connoted total exchange of population-the creation of a completely Hindu nation in India and the creation of a completely Muslim nation in Pakistan.
Of course, by a strange illogicality all the non-Muslim nations were lumped together as one Hindu nation. The two-nation theory was advanced by the Muslims as a justification for the partition of India and the creation of a State made up of geographically contiguous units where the Muslims were numerically in a majority. Once the State was created, the two-nation theory lost its force even for the Muslims. If it is still persisted in, it will logically lead to the partition of Pakistan and the creation of a State made up of contiguous areas where non-Muslims are. in a majority; a contingency from which every Pakistani must recoil with horror. The Muslims, who were a nationality in undivided India, are now citizens in their own country, Pakistan, in which every citizen, whatever may be his religion, is a member of the Pakistani nation. All of the Muslims and non-Muslims are Pakistanis first and last and we take pride and glory in our having achieved nationhood. There is, thus, a radical difference between the conception
