Address at a public meeting at Mardan on November 18, 1972

President Zulfikar Ali Bhutto addressing a mammoth public meeting in the parade ground of the Punjab Regimental Centre declared that the delay in the delineation of the line of control in Jammu and Kashmir was not because of any outside pressure but because Pakistan stood by principles which it would never sacrifice.

He added that all Pakistan wanted was that the delineation issue be settled in accordance with the provisions of the Simla Agreement and international principles. Pakistan, he said, would not be able to defend itself if it sacrificed its principles.

The President categorically declared that the impression in U.N. quarters and in India that perhaps Pakistan was being pressurized by China was absolutely wrong. Pakistan-China relations, he said, were so good that neither needed to pressurize the other or interfere in each other’s internal affairs. The two countries believed in good, friendly and neighborly relations. Pakistan takes its own decisions in accordance with the national interest.

Referring to the Chinese veto in the Security Council on the admission of Bangladesh, the President said that the right of veto had been exercised because certain principles were being violated. What was the justification, he asked, for India to continue detaining our prisoners of war when there was ceasefire in the subcontinent, the Security Council and General Assembly had passed resolutions and the Simla Agreement had been signed. And 20,000 of the 90,000 prisoners in India were women and children, how could India justify that? That is why China had used veto-for the sake of certain principles and this will continue to be exercised as long as the Pakistani POWs were treated and kept as hostage in India.

Pakistan had asked China, the president said amidst cheers, to use the veto “if you are our friend,” and China being a good friend did accordingly.

The President said that when Russia had used the veto during the Indian aggression against Pakistan, it was for the sake of the aggressor, but China had done it for a just cause.

Certain quarters, the President said, were also talking of some “internal pressure”, but didn’t they know that the present Government was a people’s Government, a constitutional Government? It had not usurped power and, therefore, it could not be pressurized by anybody from within or without. How could General Tikka Khan prevail upon him when a Field-Marshal and his successor had failed to do so, he asked. All such canards, he said, were being floated to make him take a wrong decision which will never come from him.

The object of the propaganda about the so-called pressures was to make him proclaim “I am a bold man” and take a wrong decision. “But I won’t do it, “he said, “let them say there is pressure from Nixon and pressure from Qayyum Khan.”

The President explained the “big conspiracy” leading to the separation of East Pakistan. First, he said, India cried out loud about “refugees” from East Pakistan to earn world sympathy and Pakistan could not give a befitting reply. Then it entered into agreements and launched an attack on East Pakistan.

But the relations with India, he said, could start improving from tomorrow if she released the Pakistani POWs. So far as the line of control was concerned it was not a question of the size of an area but that of principles. If India was interested in possessing an area, Pakistan, too, was interested because it had its rights on both sides of the line.

Referring to the threats of a movement on the question of Bangladesh, the President said the people knew how to deal with such elements. But he added that in the absence of a decision there was no question of any movement. The decision, he said, was to be taken by the people and the Assembly and the people must take a correct decision after careful thought. He was duty bound to tell the people about the advantages and disadvantages of a certain decision and so far as Bangladesh was concerned some contact will have to be established with the people there in order to settle the outstanding issues.

He warned that Indian influence in the area will increase if Pakistan failed to establish some contact. But while assuring the people that no decision would be taken against their will he urged them to take the correct one otherwise “how will the work go on.”

The President said that the movement was being threatened by the same old elements who had opposed the establishment of Pakistan and who now wanted to weaken what remain of this country. Unless the basic issues were resolved, he said, attention could not be paid to the pressing problems of poverty, hunger and disease. If after 25 years there cannot be recourse to reason and if we continue to remain entangled in disputes, how can we progress, he asked.

The President said that in politics the decision had to be properly times, otherwise the country was bound to suffer. He recalled that a settlement had almost been reached between emissaries of Pakistan and Indian in Geneva with regard to the fixation of troops and holding of plebiscite in Jammu and Kashmir after the first conflict, but it was all undone because politics at home were moving in a wrong direction. That, he said, only benefited India. The Governments of that time could not take decisions because of an emotional approach engendered by politicians indulging in empty speech-making.

Turning to domestic issues, President Bhutto said that efforts would be made to settle the tenant-landlord problem justly and amicably. An answer had to be found because confrontation was in nobody’s interest. The provincial Government, too, he said, should make an all-out effort in that direction. Agricultural production had to be increased to ensure people’s prosperity and it could not be done without smooth relations between tenants and land-owners.

The President declared that the PPP would always be on the side of the peasants, workers and students if injustice was done to them. The PPP, he said, would never abandon its revolutionary programme. Those who claimed that it would not be fulfilled were the enemies of the people.

The president told the cheering people that in spite of the grave crisis which confronted the country, the PPP Government had done a tremendous job for the people and it will continue to work for them. He, however, pointed out that everything could not be done in one go. But “we have brought you on the right path,” he said

The President, referring to the “revolutionaries” in his party, said that these elements were nowhere to be seen till three months before the general elections. These people, he said, were “July-wala and September-wala politicians” who had been thrown out of Government service on corruption charges. Where were these revolutionaries during Ayub Khan’s time, he asked.

There was a politician who had won elections from Mardan and who is also describing himself as a revolutionary. If he were so why did he not make revolution against the British or even against Ayub Khan, he asked.

The President said that it was being pointed out that the Government did not take Pakistan out of SEATO, although it had made a commitment. But now it had been done and it was properly timed. There is a time to do everything, and even a good thing done before its time can cause harm. He appealed to people not to be misled.

The President said that in spite of an emergency of the type not even faced by Spain after its civil war or by Germany after World War II, the Government had introduced revolutionary reforms for workers and peasants. It had given the country an interim constitution and a start to a permanent one. Provinces, too, had got Governors of their own. There was more to come, he said, but it would take time.

The President said that while under past Governments capitalists spent their money in Europe or saved it there, it would now be used within the country. He said this while announcing that a local industrial magnate, Mir Afzal Khan, would be constructing a hospital in Mardan at a cost of Rs. 35 lakh.

The President also got loud cheers from students who, he assured, would get more hostel accommodation and more buses next year.

The crowd snubbed an old Government pensioner for interrupting the President’s speech to complain about unnecessary delay in the payment of his G.P. Fund, but the President called him to the stage, listened to him patiently and assured him that he would get his G.P. Fund.

While the President was talking about the relations with India someone from the crowd said “we shall fight.” The President did not disappoint him and said that he should be enrolled in the army forthwith.