Speech delivered at a public meeting in Quetta on May 21, 1972

My dear comrades, elders, workers, farmers, students, laborers’,

Let me first salute you and then salute the Princess of Iran. My dear friends, it is after a long time that I have come here n Quetta to address you. I have always been trying to maintain communication with you. Ever since the Pakistan People’s Party has come into being, it has been our endeavors to keep a close contact with the people, we do not want that this contact, this relationship, is disrupted in any way. You will recall that I have, on other occasions, addressed the people of Quetta. During my election campaign, in my speeches, I told you that come what may, whether we get to power or form the opposition, our contact with the people of Pakistan, with the poor people of Pakistan, would not be lost. It is because I am my party have sprung from you. We cannot ever undermine the power of the people. The sun rises from the east and sets in the west. It is possible that the sun may rise from the west and may set in the east, but it is not possible that I lose contact with the people. So my dear comrades, I am really very happy that God has again given me an opportunity to address you and communicate with you so that we may come closer to each other. All this is because I and my Government believe in and respect the basic principle which is the supremacy of the will of the people. We believe that the demands of the people must be met. Now so long as the people are with us, so long as the poor people, the farmers, the workers, the students are with us, we would remain in power. But as soon as you go against us, we would not be I power. We want to be in power with respect and dignity and do not want to be called a government which is anti-people.

Now my friends, my proud people, my proud brothers, the brave people of Baluchistan, the great farmers and workers, you must listen to me. I am going to deliver an important speech important because we have to obtain your advice on certain internal problems, a kind of consent from the people. Besides, as I told you earlier, we have amongst us today a very special guest, the sister of the Shahinshah of Iran, Princess Ashraf, with her team, that is why I will have to talk to you on some other important matters as well. But those foreign issues I would take up later. First, let me touch upon the internal problems, because unless we are internally strong and stable, unless we reform our home, unless we set it right, unless we advance internally, achieve happiness for our poor people, the foreign affairs and the issues which concern foreign policy would remain unsolved. The 25 years history of Pakistan bears witness that so long as we were not internally strong and our people, the poor people, were not backing the Government the foreign policy of Pakistan could never have a chance to succeed. It is for this reason that I intend to speak on our internal national problems, but I would not go into great details.

In the first place, let me tell you that after the birth of Pakistan the first 10 years are generally believed to have been democratic, but even in that period of democracy Baluchistan was not given the right to enjoy a democratic system. This province, which is part of Pakistan, which is on the map of Pakistan, the biggest province of Pakistan, not by virtue of its population but geographically, yes, this biggest province of Pakistan, did not enjoy democracy even in that era of democracy when there was (said to be) democracy in Pakistan and there was parliamentary system existing in East Pakistan, in Sindh, in Punjab, in the Frontier province. Even after independence, the parliamentary system and democracy were not introduced in Baluchistan. Even during those days there was no Assembly here (in this province). In those days there used to be a representative of the Central Government in Baluchistan, who was neither a Governor General nor a Governor, he was called Agent to the Governor General, which in other words meant, agent of the Central Government. Thus until the formation of one unit democracy was not introduced in Baluchistan. Throughout Pakistan, in all other provinces, it was (supposed to be) a democratic era but in this province democracy was not introduced. Later on, the One Unit Scheme was introduced in which the autonomy of all the provinces was abolished and one single province of West Pakistan was formed. It was known as the province of West Pakistan. The other province was East Pakistan. Now you people and your leaders fought against One Unit and your fight was not merely for democracy but for the autonomy of your province too. You as people of Pakistan succeeded in this fight. In the days of Ayub Khan, I remember, that Ayub Khan had said that, come what may, he would not do away with the One Unit, that the One Unit was something sacrosanct (for him) and so he would not abandon it. But the people of Pakistan fought against he dictatorship of Ayub Khan, all the people of Pakistan not merely those of Baluchistan. People from all other provinces of our country in West Pakistan and in East Pakistan organized a very big movement against the dictatorship and struggled against it, and made sacrifices, many sacrifices. My young friends were in the vanguard of this struggle.

I remember that in the days of Ayub Khan when the movement was launched, when the leaders of Pakistan were arrested, and all kinds of restrictions were imposed, people did not abandon their leaders. The poor people, farmers and workers and the hungry people did not give up the principles which they were upholding and for which they were fighting. They carried on with the movement. They did not give up their principles. They kept the struggle alive and continued with it. The people of Pakistan defeated a personality like Ayub Khan by solidly supporting the struggle against him and they succeeded in their struggle. Now after the defeat of Ayub Khan we though that that was the end of dictatorship in this country and that it was the beginning of democracy so that the Government would be handed over to the representatives of the people. But my dear comrade, power is never transferred to the people so easily. Do you know, that it means to have a people’s Government? It is a Government by the representatives of the people. People’s Government is not possible until the representatives of the people get to power. We were, therefore, under an illusion. We thought that with one blow, one movement, one sacrifice, we had finished with the dictatorship forever and ever, that we had uprooted it (from our midst). But the tyrants were still perpetuating their rule through tyranny and oppression. They had no respect for law and were aiming at strengthening their dictatorship, although history of the world proves that such a thing is to ever-lasting. Now, what did you see? You did not see a people’s Government coming to power. It were not the people’s representatives who were selected to receive power, but another dictator was chosen, another commander-in-chief of the Army was picked up to receive power in contravention for the law of the country, in contravention of the constitution.

Of course, the constitution was made by Ayub Khan. It was not our or your constitution. It was a constitution framed by Ayub Khan and he himself outraged his own constitution. His constitution demanded that if there was to be a change of the Government and the power was to be retransferred it was supposed to be the speaker of the Assembly who was to receive the responsibilities of the president. But Ayub Khan did not hand over the responsibilities to the Speaker. Ayub Khan handed over the authority and responsibilities of the Government to the Commander-in-Chief of the Army. Later on, after dictatorship of Ayub Khan ended the dictatorship still continued. Before Ayub Khan’s dictatorship it was Ghulam Mohammad’s dictatorship. Ayub Khan established his dictatorship after Ghulam Mohammad and he was followed by Yahya Khan’s dictatorship. But you, we, our comrades, my party, this very party, everyone continued the struggle. All of us continued our struggle. They threatened us. They said they would assassinate us and that they would kill us and that they would put us in jail. But we said that we did not care because we were fighting for principles and that we would continue fighting for principles. We were fighting for the welfare of the people and their progress. We were fighting against he effects of poverty and destitution and for that we were not to grudge any amount of sacrifice. We were ready to make more sacrifices and if we were destined to received bullets on our chests, well, we were prepared to receive them. This was the reason, this precisely was the reason why the struggle continue, the movement did not end and we fought that dictatorship. You can imagine that as far as my friends are concerned how such and how long they have struggled. I am speaking of my party. We struggled against Ayub Khan and after Ayub Tank’s dictatorship ended there was a joint struggle and we faced the dictatorship of Yahya Khan. Let us keep in mind that no one can say that we did not face the dictatorship of Yahya Khan. You would recall that on 25th of March, 1971, Yahya Khan resorted to military action. He did not solve political issues through political methods. He used guns and tanks and army. At that time when we came back from East pakistna we told him that if conditions remained as they were, Pakistan would be destroyed by November or December. I am not saying it now. I said it then to those people that if you would continue like this and if you would use force and batons and bullets then you should abandon Pakistan because in that case Pakistan was not going to stay as a country. We said all this to them on 27th of March 1971.

But that was only part of my conversation. Later on, you would recall, that Yahya Khan was not agreeing to anything and in his arrogance and false pride he though that he would find a solution for this problem though force and bullets. New later on when he was not listening, when he had shut his eyes and ears, we felt that it was our duty to warn him. Four months after that I had spoken for the first time at Sehwan and at Sehwan I said that those methods (of Yahya Khan) were absolutely wrong. That was to divide Pakistan. That was to destroy Pakistan. Then I delivered a speech at Hyderabad, and another speech on 1th of September, at Karachi, and in that speech at Karachi at Quaid-i-Azam’s Mausoleum that being Quaid-i-Azam’s birth anniversary – I said, “O Quaid-i-Azam, the creator of Pakistan, be my witness, I am declaring today that if the existing methods continue and if this kind of Government continues to exist, and if we continue to behave with our own people the way we are behaving, then you be my witness that Pakistan will be dismantled and broken into pieces and nobody would be able to save Pakistan”. Afterwards I delivered another speech in Multan and by that time all of you wintssed the events as they happened.

Now if you have any doubts about what I am saying, I would only request you to go back home and refer to the newspapers of those days – newspapers of 8th, 9th and 11th September and of 9th October and read all that I had said in my speeches in Multan. Read it carefully and see that I did tell at that time that by November enemies of Pakistan would be in a position to take illegal advantage of the situation and would attack East Pakistan. That they would conquer East Pakistan and annex it with their own territories. Eventually, you did see all that happened (as I had predicated). But by that time the game was over, and nothing was left. The economy was shattered, all kinds of losses were incurred, all kinds of damages were done, all kinds of calamities had fallen. Precisely, at that time Yahya Khan summoned me from New York and ordered me to return and return at once. But when I returned what did I see? I saw that Pakistan, the biggest Muslim State, Pakistan of Quaid-i-Azam and Mohammad Iqbal, your Pakistan, Pakistan of all Muslims, yes, their Pakistan had faced a defeat, a defeat of the magnitude which in the history of Islam the Muslims had never witnessed. Can anybody say that this was the defeat of the people of Pakistan? Who can say that this was the defeat as a system, a wrong, vulgar system. And this was the last defeat. At that time the shape of Pakistan had very nearly sunk and had I delayed my return for 2 or 3 days, perhaps Yahya Khan also would have gone and drowned himself in the nearest sea. So, when I returned I consulted my friends and companions. I said, “Comrades, what is your advice? We had made promises with our people. We had told our people that we would bring progress and prosperity in Pakistan. But when we were making these promises we did not imagine and would not have ever imagined that East Pakistan would be separated, or that the resources of East Pakistan and its strength would no more be with West Pakistan. When at the time of elections we had made these promises, we were giving people the concept of a united country and we were saying that this was a country of 13 crores of Muslims. This was an Islamic state in which we had made big promises with the people”. I remember each one of those promises. You will not have to remind me of any of those promises. No, there will never be an occasion when you would be forced to say, “Well, Bhutto Sahib you had made promises with us, so now how about those promises? “Well, I am coming to that point, but first let me tell you that when we had made those promises the situation was very different from what it is now. It was basically a different situation. For one thing, it was one unified country in which we were living.

East and West were one. Our population was 13 crores. Our resources were common, and cessation had not taken place. Still I said to my friends and companions to advise me and I said that we could not keep our eyes shut, nor was there any point in hanging our heads in shame before our people. After all the people would ask as to what were we doing (to redeem the situation)? “Didn’t you say that you would make Pakistan prosperous? Didn’t you say that you would help the poor? “(they would asl). So I said to my friends, “What is left with us? We are not left with any money, any wealth or resources. There is hardly anything left with us. I said that all that was left with us were scattered pieces. What should we do now? T would take a long time to reform the national structure. It would take a long time to stand on our own legs. “Perhaps later on it might be possible to fulfill our promises, but if we were to accept the responsibilities of the Government at that time we would lose our popularity. People would say that they were also liars and they also had made false promises with the people. History cannot excuse those who speak lies. Whether or not we are in power, whether or not I am President, I do not want that there should be a situation whereby one day history should give such a verdict and declare that Zulfikar Ali Bhutto also told lies to his people.

Now, therefore, my dear comrades, it was a very difficult decision. The enemies were watching us. They were not merely watching us, in fact they were ridiculing us. The Indian Chief of Staff was bragging that it was not the end. Conquest of East Pakistan was not the end. He promised to give to the people of India yet another gift within two months. The Defence Minister of India, Jagjivan Ram, was also bragging that the conquest of East Pakistan was an ordinary thing for the people of India. You know that whatever they were saying was not without good reasons. We were really in such a terrible mess. Ninety thousand persons, our brave soldiers, were taken prisoners in East Pakistan. Ninety thousand people mean four Divisions of Pakistan Army which were captured by India and to top it all was the conquest of East Pakistan.

India took advantage of our wrong system and our bad organization and she conquered Dacca and East Pakistan was separated from West Pakistan. Now what was left with us in West Pakistan? At that time in West Pakistan there was neither interim Government nor democracy nor the people’s rule. There were only few persons who were ruling Pakistan. But my friends, few persons cannot run Governments. Four or five persons cannot administer a big country. For that political parties were needed. Friends and allies were needed. Look at the present Central Cabinet and look at the power of the Provinces. Had they (the Centre and the Provinces) not been our hands and wings how could we run our country at all? Now those two or three persons who were running Pakistan at that time, they did not care for Pakistan or for its progress. They were selfish people. They did not want happiness of the people of Pakistan and only cared for their own happiness. That was why India took 90,000 of our soldiers as her prisoners and when she occupied East Pakistan there was nothing left of what was Pakistan. People were sad and dejected and there was misery and class hatred and provincialism and so on. People are now saying that injustice has been done to them. Wherever I go people say that injustice was done to them. Injustice was done to Baluchs, Pathans, Sindis, Punjabis and to everyone else. Now this was the situation in which we had to accept the responsibility of the Government, and the worst of all calamities was that the economy was totally damaged. Foreign debts had mounted up. I told my companions that our intentions were honest and that we would not let the people of Pakistan down. I said that when we promised serve the people of Pakistan it didn’t mean that we would only serve them when all was well and when conditions were favorable. In fact it was now that the nation was in trouble and when we had been placed in a situation similar to that of Dunkirk or even worse than Dunkirk, because those people (from Dunkirk) had fled away from Dunkirk and their ship was still sailing, while in our situation the ship was sinking. So it was in this situation that we were required to serve the people of Pakistan.

I am grateful to my friends and comrades for their kindness because of which we were able to bring the ship of the nation safely to the shore. Now I can say with pride that in four months the ship of the nation is not only brought ashore but it is a fact that none of the enemies of Pakistan has the courage to attack Pakistan. So my comrades, so far as the outside world is concerned, we have to some extent got a proper control of our foreign affairs and in the days to come we would have better control of the situation. And all this has been through your cooperation and kindness.

Now so far as the question of Provinces is concerned, you would recall that when I came in January to Quetta I had asked you as to why should you think that we were opposed to democracy? Why should we hate democracy when we have always been fighting for democracy? We were the creation of democracy. Had we not been the off-springs of democracy we would not have been so popular with you, and you would not have respected us at all. The fact of the situation was that we were confronted with such complex problems and surrounded by conspiracies, national conspiracies and international conspiracies. I, therefore, said that for God’s sake give us some time. You had endured Martial Law for 13 to 15 years. Didn’t you have that much of confidence in me, to believe in me when I was saying that after a few months I would try to lift Martial Law? After all the biggest of all the targets and the biggest of all the victims of Ayub Khan’s Martial Law and Yahya Khan’s Martial Law was myself and my party. How could it be possible that I would be in favor of Martial Law? I had come to you with folded hands in Quetta and urged upon you not to be misled by the newspapers because most of the newspapers belonged to the Capitalists whom we had opposed.

That was why they had always been saying all kinds of things. They had been alleging that I would not lift Martial Law. To this my reply was that we would not only lift Martial Law but in Baluchistan we would accept the Government of the majority party of the Province. I said this in the office of the Pakistan People’s Party. I also talked to the present Governor of Baluchistan who was not the Governor during those days. I told him, “Sir, I do not want to usurp your rights because if I usurp any of your rights today, you will usurp my rights tomorrow. If you are representing your Province we are representing our Provinces. Election was a question of victory and defeat. It is the consequence of election that one party wins and the other loses. Now, therefore, if you want democracy, you must follow the principles of democracy and accept the rules of democracy and respect them. I told him that we would not enter into any conspiracy with you or against you. I had assured him of all this, but I had asked him to give me some time because it was at that time that an international conspiracy was at work against Pakistan. He said that he was afraid that in a few days West Pakistan was also going to be broken into pieces. He said that East Pakistan was lost. It was a matter of days that Baluchistan would also be separated. The Frontier Province would be separated.

All this was foreign propaganda which was being carried out with a motive. This propaganda was not being carried out by pro-Pakistan elements. It was being carried out by the enemies of Pakistan. We gave thought to all that and showed patience and cool headedness and stood by our people. I said, “Sir, your majority is not that of your party alone. It was a majority composed of two parties which we would respect but for that I needed some time because we had to discuss things and enter into negotiations with some other people, who are against the very concept of democracy.” Democracy cannot be averse to discussions and negotiations and it cannot be averse to patience. I can say it with pride that our discussions and negotiations continued in spite of all that some people tried to do against us and in spite of all their efforts to make us unsuccessful. We have proved true to whatever we promised do the people. We did not go back on our word although there were pressures of all kinds. You have seen that in this country where for 15 years Martial Law had continued, when Pakistan was one, when East and West were united at that time democracy was strangulated and Martial Law was allowed to perpetuate, although there was no justification for Martial Law during those days. When Pakistan was divided into two parts and when Pakistan’s economy was destroyed we had lifted Martial Law within three to four months, for the simple reason that basically we have always been against Martial Law. What we want is a people’s Government and we want that people should be able to raise their voice and that people’s power should prevail. We want that you should make progress. We want that you should rule. You have seen that we have fulfilled what we had promised. These speeches and public addresses, they are routine affairs. What is important, are our actions, more important than our words. So I said that Martial Law which I wanted to lift on the 14th of August may instead be lifted on the 21st of April. Why was I wanting (Martial Law) to continue up to 14th of August? Well, because I was trying for something, I might have failed or I might have succeeded in my effort, in which case this devaluation which we had announced might not have been necessary, because with the strong administration of Martial Law it was quite possible that we could have improved the value of our rupee. Our rupee had gone down in value. What we call a rupee, the world called it four annas because what you are getting at present for one rupee, ten years ago you were getting it for 4 annas. Not only that our rupee value had gone down abroad but even the estimation of our country had gone very low. I thought that in 3, 4 or 6 months we would increase our production and we would make progress and our economy would improve. I do not mean to say that had I continued with Martial Law until 14th of August we would have avoided devaluation of our money. No I would not tell you such a lie. All the same that was what I was trying to do. It was my aim that in the meantime we should resort to such strong measures that we could improve the value of our currency. Of course, I could not have said this in public. But it was precisely for this reason that I said, for God’s sake, have confidence in me. Now, had I said this in public the world would have thought that the value of the rupee was going to fall. I, therefore, said that I should be given some time and you said that you would not give me any time. That you were fed up. That you had endured for 15 years and were not prepared to endure any further. I, therefore, said, “O.K. if this your decision, we submit ourselves to it because we cannot go against the decision of the people.”

Martial Law was, therefore, lifted and after that Assembly was called to session. The country received an interim constitution from the Assembly. An interim constitution could not be given to the people even in the days of Liaquat Ali Khan after the death of Quaid-i-Azam, for 15 years. Neither in the days of Ghulam Mohammad, nor in the days of Nazimuddin nor Nohammad Ali Bogra nor Suhrawardy. God knows who all came and went away but the people did not get a constitution. Now an interim constitution has been received by the people which is the basic constitution has been received by the people which is the basic constitution and which has to be completed and finalized. It was upto you to decide about that. I would not want that it should be my decision. You would recall, the poor people of Baluchistan would recall that Auyb Khan declared, “I, Field Marshal Mohammad Ayub Khan, am giving you a constitution, a constitution to the people of Pakistan.” I said that my struggle was for seeing the day when people of Pakistan were able to say that we are giving this constitution to our country. No single person has to give a constitution. It is you who have to give a constitution. It is for you to give us a constitution and we would accept it and respect it. Now, therefore, those who are representatives of the people should frame a constitution and it is my request that as the representatives of the people they should look at the history of Pakistan and see how constitutions have been treated and what sort of constitutions have been treated and what sort of constitutions they were. We do not want that once again there should be dictatorship. All those people who are sitting here, all those politicians who are sitting here, if they are your real representatives it should be their endeavor to see that the dictatorship does not return to Pakistan. But remember this is no easy matter. I warn you that if we do not show far-sightedness and if we are not cool-headed and if we do not resort to the policy of give and take and if we do not accept the principle of negotiations and if we do not forget and forgive,–then remember that there is every possibility that dictatorship will come back again. Some people say that dictatorship is buried forever.

Now listen to me. You have not buried dictatorship forever. Permanent and complete constitution, unless you have discipline and patience, unless you have advancement and progress, unless you yourself defend your rights, dictatorship would not be buried forever. Now what happened in Quetta two days back? What was the need of all that happened? I am asking you what was the necessity of that? Slogans from one end, counter slogans from the other end, followed by pelting of stones, followed by bullets, and the result was that a poor man was killed.

I am a political being. I am not against slogans and speeches. In fact we, in the People’s Party, have given three very important slogans to the people of Pakistan. They are: Islam is our religion; democracy is our politics socialism is our economy. Now we have given such slogans to the people of Pakistan, how then can we be against slogans? My dear comrades, for God’s sake, be kind and understanding. It does not mean that you should raise slogans night and day so that when you get up in the morning, instead of starting your day with the ‘Kalima’ you should raise slogans and when you sleep you raise slogans.

Now our very special guest has arrived in Pakistan all the way from Teheran. You may not know that Princess Ashraf was supposed to go to Paris on a very important mission, but we said that there should be no misunderstandings (between our two countries) and we requested her to come to Pakistan and see for herself how popular she was (in Pakistan) and what goodwill we have for her in this country. We thought that it was no use sending reports from here and calling their Ambassador and informing him that such and such thing was wrong and such and such thing was right. It was better if she came here and saw for herself how the people of Pakistan respected her. Now, therefore, she is here. I am told, there was a tea party in honor of somebody, perhaps a Governor or a Minister, I cannot say for sure. And suddenly a truck came on the scene with people shouting one brand of slogans, and then came another truck with people shouting another brand of slogan and all this ended in the death of a poor rickshaw-puller. What was his crime? What was the crime of that poor man? Nevertheless the destructionists were very happy. Such people cannot be the friends of Pakistan. They cannot be our friends. They cannot be friends of the poor people. Friends of any segment of our society. What they want is simply to see Pakistan surrounded with problems and miseries. In what words should I tell you that Pakistan is at present (almost) dismantled. It is being pushed into a corner now. They (destructionists) want to create misunderstandings between us and our special friends—Turkey and Iran. It is a big conspiracy, a very big conspiracy. Our people are poor and simple. They need education. I am telling you that in your innocence you should not be misled by these people (destructionists). I assure you that ever since Pakistan is created, ever since Pakistan is established, there has not been a single instance of Iran having not supported Pakistan. She has never done anything against Pakistan, never taken any step against Pakistan, or ever spoken against Pakistan. Had she done otherwise I myself would have been against Iran. But because from the very inception of Pakistan, Iran has been always supporting us and has always been on our side in every crisis and every war and when the Shahinshah of Iran has been standing shoulder to shoulder with us in every difficult situation, how can we be ungrateful to Iran? My dear comrades, my elders, my friends, I can assure you that I am not anybody’s stooge. My entire struggle is a people’s struggle. At the time when I was the Foreign Minister the foreign policy of my country was directed towards the progress and welfare of Pakistan. At that time two super powers were against my foreign policy and they conspired to sabotage it, but this did not frighten me at all. Now if I could not be frightened by super powers like America and Russia how can I be frightened by Iran? But remember, truth is truth and falsehood is falsehood. One has got to be on the side of and not against fairness and truth. One has got to adhere to one’s principles. So now what does truth demand? What does history demand? The Iranian Government, the people of Iran, and the Shahinshah of Iran had never gone against Pakistan and have always been supporting Pakistan. For that you may refer to any international reports and the record of the Security Council. You may read the text of the speeches of Iranian representatives in which they have always supported the right of self-determination for the people of Jammu and Kashmir. Iran has always been in the vanguard of our support. Then in 1965 war when we were short of ammunition, we received a regular replenishment from Iran. Being our friend, Iran displeased India, displeased many others, displeased the friends of India. We are not ungrateful people and cannot be ungrateful to Iran. If we start raising slogans against Iran how can there be any progress in our relations with Iran? How shall we be able to have friends and allies? We do not want to interfere with the internal affairs of Iran and similarly we do not want that Iran would interfere in our internal affairs. We would always have direct talks with Iran as our brothers, and there is no need to raise slogans. They have their leaders and we have ours. The two of us can sit together and behave in a responsible manner. But there is no need of raising slogans or brandishing batons. Honestly, I feel so ashamed because of these people (disruptionists) and I say to myself where are our noble principles. What etiquette are we following? How are we exhibiting our culture, our traditions, our history? If we continue behaving in this manner where shall we led ourselves to? Who would be on our side? Imagine that a country like India which had led the worst kind of aggression against Pakistan and which had been most cruel to Pakistan, it was or that very country that the disruptionists should be raising slogans. Iran which has always been supporting and helping up, against Iran in this city of Quetta, in this very city, slogans were raised! It was under these circumstances that I requested (Princess Ashraf) to come and visit Pakistan.

People say that Bhutto obtains the consensus of the people (in public meetings). Now if I do not obtain the consensus of the people should I obtain the consensus of the animals? And those who assert that they want democracy and believe in democracy those very people are criticizing me. This means that I should not seek the opinion of the people and against the people? It simply means that they do not respect you. It only means that those poor people who are sitting here in torn clothes are not supposed to be respected and must be despised! All those people who do not want to seek the consensus of the people are enemies of democracy. They are enemies of the people. Should I not know the will of the people? Who is objecting to this (let me know)? Is there anyone sitting here, who says that I should not obtain the will of the people and that whatever I am saying is incorrect? Well, I have great respect for all of you. After God almighty, people are the biggest force and except God Almighty, there is no force bigger than people. So my friends, if I obtained the will of the people, I have done nothing wrong. I have committed no sin. Now let my brave people tell me if I should or should not obtain their will. Now I would obtain your will and if there is anyone who is prepared to stand up, yes, if there is any man who can stand up and say that the relations between Iran and Pakistan should not be good and if there is one single person who can stand up and say this I would quit my office. S there any such person? Any foreign agent? So now stand up and say, “Long live friendship of Iran and Pakistan”.

My comrades, my friends, there are a couple of important things which I have to mention, and after that I would take your leave. The first thing is that in Baluchistan you have your provincial Government, which is composed of NAP and JUI. Your Governor is sitting here, your Chief Minsiter, Sardar Ataullah Mengal, is also sitting here. I would like to say in their presence that in Pakistan, it is the first instance that the ruling party, which is the majority party and which a has an overwhelming majority in the Centre and in the other two big provinces, I mean, Punjab and Sindh, where 80 percent of the people of Pakistan live, that party has created history, first example of its and when the majority party has removed its own Governors. The Governors belonged to our party, the Governor of Sarhad Mr. Hayat Mohammad Khan Sherpao, and the Governor of Baluchistan, Sardar Ghaus Bakhsh Raisani, who was not a member of our party but was supporting our party and was appointed by us because it was within the powers of Central Government to do so. All the same we removed these two friends of ours, the representatives of our party whom we had appointed our Governors in the provinces. We removed them and appointed Governors belonging to NAP and accepted the Chief Minster from NAP. The Governor is supposed to be the representative of the Centre, representing the President. Still such an office has been given to the NAP. You will not find an example of the kind in the history of this subcontinent. Neither in Pakistan nor in India nor in any other country where there is a Parliamentary system and a Parliamentary type of constitution. Here both the Governors and the Prime Ministers belong to the party which is neither in power at the Centre nor in majority at the Centre. Now even after this if people say that we are not cooperating and that we do not respect democracy or that we want one party Government then I leave it to you to give your own verdict whether such a criticism is really justified. I openly declare here, and with pleasure, that we would support your Government and the Government of Sarhad. Whatever resources we have available at the Centre we would help you with those resources. We are not mean people. We do not grudge helping you. We do not want to perpetuate selfishly. We are for Pakistan. We do not want to establish our rule. We want that people should rule. We have no selfish motives. We have no vested interests. We have only one interest which is to build Pakistan and to uphold the honor of Pakistan. We have only one objective and that is to safeguard the honor and pride of Pakistan so that whichever Government is in office (with these objectives) we would cooperate with it.

Now it is my pleasure to announce here that in Baluchistan the Central Government shall establish a medical college and on that college the Central Government shall spend seven crores of rupees which the project would cost. Where would the Central Government get the money from? Well, God would help us in this. Now that settles the question of the medical college. As for the development of your province we have also doubled your development budget and that is that. May God bless you.