The mentality of the political parties has sunk so low that I am unable any longer to believe that elections will improve the present chaotic internal situation and enable us to form a strong and stable Government capable of dealing with the innumerable and complex problems facing us to-day. We cannot get men from the moon. The same group of people who have brought Pakistan on the verge of ruination will rig the elections for their own ends. They will come back more revengeful, because, I am sure, that the elections will be contested, mainly, on personal, regional and sectarian basis. When they return, they will use the same methods which have made a tragic farce of democracy and are the main causes of the present widespread frustration in the country.
Shifting Loyalties
However, much the Administration may try, I am convinced, judging by shifting loyalties and the ceaseless and unscrupulous scramble for office, that the election will neither be free nor fair. They will not solve our difficulties. On the contrary, they are. likely to create greater unhappiness and disappointments leading, ultimately, to a really bloody revolution. Recently, we had elections for the Karachi Municipal Corporation. Twenty-nine per cent of the electorate exercised their votes, and, out of these, about 50 per cent were bogus votes.
We hear threats and cries of civil disobedience in order to retain private volunteer organizations and to break up One Unit. These disruptive tendencies are a good “indication of their patriotism and the length up to which politicians and adventurers are prepared to go to achieve their parochial aims.
Our foreign policy is subjected to unintelligent and irresponsible criticism, not for patriotic motives, but from selfish viewpoints, often by the very people who were responsible for it. We desire to have friendly relations with all nations, but political adventures try their best to create bad blood and misunderstanding between us and countries like the USSR, the UAR and the Peoples Republic of China. Against India, of course, they scream for war, knowing full well that they will be nowhere near the firing line.
In no country in the World do political parties treat foreign policy in the manner it is done in Pakistan. To dispel the confusion so caused, I categorically reiterate that we shall continue to follow a policy which our interests and geography demand and that we shall honor all our international commitments, which, as is well-known, we have undertaken to safeguard the security of Pakistan and as a peace loving nation to play our part in averting the danger of war from this troubled world.
For the last three years, I have been doing my utmost to work the Constitution in a democratic way. I have labored to bring about coalition after coalition, hoping that it would stabilize the Administration and that the affairs of the country would be run in the interests of the masses. My detractors, in their dishonest ways, have, on every opportunity, called these attempts as palace intrigues. It has become fashionable to put all the blame on the President. A wit said the other day: “If it rains too much it is the fault of the President and if it does not rain it is the fault of the President” If only I alone is
