Message to the People of Murree on June 23, 1972
As I leave Murree after more than 10 days, I wish to greet and thank the people of Murree for their kindness and hospitality. More than anything, I thank them for their forbearance, because I am conscious of the inconvenience my stay must have caused them. No matter how informal one wishes the arrangements to be, a certain degree of formality, involving security cordons and traffic block ups does, for obvious reasons, creep in. I do hope the residents of this beautiful hill place and the visiting holiday makers will have understood and put up with it.
May I also say that I came to Murree not because I wished to escape the sweltering heat of Rawalpindi, but because I wanted to be away from all routine activities in order to devote myself fully to the crucial matters that had to be considered in depth and detail before I proceeded to India for negotiations. Anyone who is familiar with the routine working of Government will know that it becomes impossible to avoid inessential work and activity if it is based in the capital. I wanted time to reflect, time to think and I wanted to avoid being inundated by a host of minor problems and the ever flowing stream of files and papers which find their way to my desk. In Murree, I tried but I did not succeed in avoiding the files.
You must also have noticed the very large number of visitors and public representatives with whom I concerned. Obviously, it is not possible for to see everyone. I can only see so many people in a given day and no more. You will bear with me when I say that no matter how many people I do manage to see, there will always be a backlog of those whom I was unable to receive. That does not, of course, mean that my desire to meet them all was any less – it is a question of time. My intention was to meet as many people as possible from all walks of life in order to hold discussions with them and get enlightened on the crucial issues facing Pakistan. I went through this process with every good intention. I, therefore, hope that everyone will understand the inherent limitations and that nobody will take it a miss if I was unable to meet a particular individual on this occasion. As far as I am concerned, all citizens are equal and deserve the same respect and attention.
Once again I thank the people of Murree for their hospitality and may the summer of 1972 bring you much happiness.