Starting with a Clean Slate Address to the Muzaffargarh Bar Association, January 17, 1968

I am very happy to make my acquaintance with members of this bar association. I naturally have great respect for them not only because I come from the profession, but because I have admiration for this profession, and I do not consider it to be one of trouble-makers as some people think. The legal profession is an honorable profession. It embodies the progress of man and respect for human rights, for the rights of society. Society would be in chaos and confusion but for its laws and for those who interpret the rights of its members. So for me it is an honor to be here and that is why I would like to talk to you in a particular context.

First of all you may ask me why under the present circumstances have I embarked on the formation of a new party. Some may say there already are enough parties, so why should I add one more party? I must tell you that I gave very careful thought and consideration to this situation. I had discussions with members and leaders of all existing parties without prejudice. I have the highest regard for them. I think you will notice that, in the course of my speeches, I have not been critical of the other parties or political personalities. They had discussions with me and some of them very kindly invited me to join their organizations, and I would have certainly considered joining one of them had it been in the national interest.

Existing realities are such that I shall have to go into details. You may think this is being critical and that I am contradicting myself, when, on the one hand, I say that I do not talk disparagingly about other parties and personalities and, on the other, I go into a critical examination of the parties. This is not so. The events of the country are no secret from you. You are aware of them. I think you know that there are certain difficulties in the Council Muslim League. They have their differences over elections. They have their personality clashes and they have not really got going since the last elections and even now they have these internal tensions at the highest level. I need not mention these leaders by name. I think, you are aware of them if you follow the proceedings of these parties and particularly the outcome of their elections and the action they took against certain members whom they had elected.

The need today is speed, in the sense of action. I, have used the term progressive. Also. I have used the term revolutionary in its ordinary sense. I use it constitutionally. You have to be dynamic, you have to forge ahead, to break many barriers, to struggle hard and move fast and not care about the consequences. The parties of yesterday, tied to old traditions and old ways, seem to be incapable of this. Much time has been lost, because time, like the tides of the sea, waits for no one. So from that point of view also, there were these difficulties in conservative parties. That is one reason why they have not been able to meet the challenge of the present times. They find the task very difficult.

As far as the progressive parties are concerned, and particularly the National Awami Party, that is also a divided party. We have not to think in the terms of interpretations of a certain political philosophy from the point of view of what other countries think. We have to seek a Pakistani interpretation. We cannot give it an interpretation which is inspired from other quarters. We should have a progressive party, which has a programme relevant to conditions in our own country, which has its own philosophy rather than look in one direction or look in another direction. So there are these difficulties as far as the existing progressive parties are concerned. Time has also shown that they will not be able to unite on fundamentals.

Our task is to bring about a general understanding between all the parties of the left and of the right. The Pakistan People’s Party can form a great bridge, because we have come with a clean slate. We have not come with any past notions; we have not come with any past prejudices; we have no personality clashes; we have not done anyone down; nobody has done us down. We are all in the field with an open mind. We are wedded to certain basic principles. We have said that Islam is our faith and for Islam we will give our lives. It is our religion, it is the basis of Pakistan. There is no controversy on that and if any party were not to make Islam as the main pillar of its ideology, then that party would not be a Pakistani party. It would be an alien party. That goes without saying.

But, at the same time, we believe that we should not start controversies or go into academic discussions, because, after all, in the modern context, if Quaid-i-Azam, who was the founder of this state, believed that Islam and socialism are compatible; and if Iqbal, who was a philosopher, pitiable, then we should, without entering into an academic controversy, follow these great leaders. We believe that the country must have a socialist economy because for 20 years we have seen only loot and plunder.

The present system is not Islamic. How can they say that Islam and socialism are not compatible? What are they doing? This highway robbery, that is taking place in the name of capitalism, is a kind of capitalism which does not even exist in the United States of America. When the people are getting really more and more miserable, when the living conditions of the masses are deteriorating, how can this system have the sanction of Islam? Go into the interior and see how human beings live. They have no future, their children have no future. They live in disease, they exist in disease and they die in disease. They see no bright future ahead. For them there is only darkness. This is not a system of free enterprise. How is Pakistan developing? Developing towards what? What is the criterion? Are the people happy? Are the people satisfied? Are the basic necessities of life within the reach of the people? Are they able to clothe themselves? Are they able to adequately get treatment, if they fall ill? Have they got some insurance? Have they got some security?

I am not preaching class hatred. This is not class hatred. We have to tackle basic anomalies and no basic anomaly can be tackled without the application of the principles of scientific socialism. Why do we have all these tensions? Why do we have all these difficulties? Wherever I go, I find that people are unhappy.

If I go to Sindh, I find the people unhappy. In Karachi also I find the people unhappy. If I go to the Punjab, I see unhappiness. In the Frontier also the people are unhappy. Also in Baluchistan. In East Pakistan too, the people are unhappy. They are all unhappy because they are living under a system of exploitation. You remove the exploitation and you remove the unhappiness, you remove the tension. It is not that the Sindhi is exploiting the Punjabi, or the Punjabi is exploiting the Sindhi or the West Pakistani is exploiting the East Pakistani. What is wrong is the system, the system of exploitation and that is the difficulty. Change this system and put an end to exploitation. This can only be done by socialism. That is why our party stands for socialism.

We believe that the best articulation of socialism and our culture and of our ideology and our beliefs can be done by a free expression of our people’s will. That can only come through democracy. That is why democracy is our polity.

Today, we have neither democracy nor dictatorship. This system is a hash of both. In the world of today, you require full measures, you require complete measures, you require reforms where you have to lake extreme steps. This is a government of half measures. It is half democratic, half dictatorial. It has half a war with India, half a friendship with China, and it is resisting America by half. Everything it does is by half.

We need a vigorous, dynamic, dedicated, sincere leadership and we require an ideological programme, an economic programme, a political programme. For 20 years Pakistan has just dawdled along. Our opponents say we use slogans. But who are the slogan-mongers? We are not slogan-mongers. They are the slogan-mongers. For the last 20 years we have been hearing nothing but slogans. You read the newspapers and they are full of slogans. You see television, it is full of propaganda. Propaganda has become the food of the people. If we are short of food, if we are short of wheat, we have more propaganda and if anything is wrong with the country, you ask a Basic Democrat and he will say everything is right with the country. So, all is well with the world.

Basic Democrats are the Brahmins of this country. This country does not accept Brahmins. We do not say that there should not be a system of Basic Democracies, but it should be for local self-government, for self-help and not as an electoral college. As an electoral college it leads to corruption, it leads to malpractices. That is why corruption in Pakistan today has become a major industry. Wherever you go there is corruption. You cannot take a step without facing corruption. Where is the security? You are from a backward area. I am from a backward area. The administration has virtually broken down. There is no such thing as an automatic process of law and order and its implementation. Confusion has been added to confusion. The cost of living is going up. It is going beyond the reach of the people. The economic situation is deteriorating. The aim of this Government, the philosophy of this Government was economic development. We were supposed to be a second Japan. I do not see where this second Japan is. I know, some industrialists have become richer, more prosperous, but this kind of capitalism does not exist, as I said, anywhere in the West.

The economic situation is connected with the international economic situation. You are aware of the economic situation internationally. There has been devaluation of the pound sterling. There are economic difficulties in the United Kingdom. There are economic difficulties in the United States. The United States is waging a barbaric war in Vietnam, a most cruel and deplorable war against the people of Vietnam, where it is spending about 35 billion dollars a year, that is, I think, about four to five times our whole five-year Plan. There is a great drain on the gold resources. All these factors are to be taken into account in seeing what the future of the country is going to be. If an international economic crisis follows, what is going to be the position in Pakistan? We will be in even greater difficulty.

That is why it is necessary for us to mobilize our own resources, to bring about unity on the basis of unity, on the basis of principles, on the basis of established and acceptable norms, over which there is no controversy. Let us settle the fundamentals and let there be unity of approach on the basis of fundamentals. We want to give a constitutional articulation to our views. We do not want to add to the confusion. We do not want to create difficulties for our own country. This is your country, and my country, and this is where we have to live and die. Our children have to live and die here, so we are fully determined to see that our country progresses. And for this we are called names, we are called “disruptionists.” How many have ever heard of my views when the papers do not report them? Now you have heard me. I am being cautious when I say that I will speak in English, because I do not want to give the impression that we are discussing certain matters in an emotional way. We are not raising slogans. Where is the disruption? I have not yet spoken about the war. I have not yet spoken about Tashkent, I have not made any personal attacks on anyone. This is not because I am frightened. God forbid, that I should be. Under no circumstances will I be afraid to uphold the cause of my people, which is a noble and a great cause, but it is out of national considerations, for the future of my country that shall be discreet.

As far as developments are concerned, there are so many considerations. The Government does not know where it is going. It keeps shifting stands. One day they want good relations with India. They are determined to have good relations with India and on the next day they accuse India of conspiracies and of trying to dismember Pakistan. Is this the revolution? Is it not known to us what India’s attitude towards Pakistan is? We all know what has been India’s attitude from the beginning, and nobody has to discover for us that India wants the dismemberment of Pakistan. It is those who are not able to understand the Indian mentality, those who are pressurized from outside to come to certain terms and settlements, who are confused. Terms and settlements must be objective. They cannot be imposed.

Politics is an objective science. It is like mathematics. It does not move whimsically. It does not move according to the wishes of a dictator, or according to the wishes of certain people. It has its own laws and if you examine the law you will find there are certain basic factors for whose attainment you have to struggle. They do not come by subjective wishes and desire. You have read about Agartala. Two days before I wrote a letter to the Foreign Secretary telling him that the Government was following a policy which was only going to encourage India to become more determined to dismember Pakistan. I wrote that we were retreating. We must always have the initiative in our hands. We must not fall back, because the moment we do this we shall have to keep falling back. Pressure is both a worn and a monster. If you stand up to it, it is a worm: if you fall back, it becomes a monster. That is why in politics it is so important to keep the initiative. With God’s grace and with your blessings, for some time we had the initiative, but now the initiative is again slipping from our hands and, therefore, confusion and difficulties are arising. We need internal unity. We need internal strength. Unity does not come for the asking. You cannot beat and exploit the people and then ask them to unite, because they must have a stake in uniting. People must know what unity means. People must know what unity is going to bring. There must be some objective. There must be a purpose. If you ask the people to make sacrifices, then the people will make sacrifices provided they know for what purpose they are being asked to make sacrifices. If internationally you are making your position flexible, by saying one day it is “self-determination”, the next day “honorable and equitable peace,” the third day “meaningful,” the fourth day “any settlement” that will bring India and Pakistan together, the people cannot be with you. The people will get confused. For what end are they going to make sacrifices? Where is the ideology? Where is the purpose? Where are the values for which people will say that they are prepared to sacrifice their lives. The Government brings about an abstract situation. It creates a vacuum, it creates a void and then demands by ordinances that the people should take a leap in the dark. That is a tall order.

There are also the internal factors. For what should the people unite? For greater hunger? For greater despondency? For greater lawlessness? For greater corruption? For what is the Government asking the people to unite internally also? Is it going to tell them what the programme, the objective is? What assurance is being given to them that their self-respect will be restored; that individual liberties will be protected; that police excesses would not be permitted; that bureaucratic control will not come in the way of the attainment of their rights; that they will get better salaries; that they will get better wages? We do not see anything like that. Are they being told that because World Bank teams are praising Pakistan’s absorption capacity, the people’s problems have become more digestible?

On these terms you cannot inspire a people. Our people are among the greatest, and finest human material. That is the basis on which I proceeded to form Pakistan’s foreign policy. You cannot come across better human material than the people of Pakistan. They are your greatest weapon. They are more powerful than the atom bomb, if you mobilize them, if you put them together, if you honour them. But this is not the way to honor them, to call the people names and to abuse them. Thai is not the way to go about the formation of national unity, or national policy; by calling people names, going about on a negative basis. It can be done positively in the higher interests of the whole society.

It is important that we build up a cadre of public leaders; sincere honest, able, dedicated and hard working. They should command respect whether they are in Government or outside. If leadership is to be best-owed by the Government, then respect for this vital political institution will never develop. Then leadership will definitely fall into unworthy hands, into the hands of people who are willing only to think of their own welfare, about their big bank balances abroad, about the jobs that they will enjoy if they please foreign powers. On that basis what is going to be the future of Pakistan? That is why it is essential for us to unite. That is why it is essential for us to get together, for the interest of our country for the future of our country.

I can tell you that the road is a very difficult one. It is a very hard one. I know what it means because I have gone through the difficulties, but I am prepared to go through more difficulties. But we shall not succumb, we shall not surrender in the interest of the people of Pakistan. It is our moral responsibility. It is our responsibility to the people of this country. So there is no point in calling us names. There is no point in attacking us unnecessarily. The ruling party can put forward its record. After all in ten years, let us see what your achievements are. You will have to carry your past on your backs. If that was not so. Chiang Kai Shek should be still sitting in Peking and not in Taiwan. People want to know what is good for them today what is good for them tomorrow not what you did yesterday, if at all you did anything yesterday.

Time moves on. It is a continuous process. You cannot think in terms of your past dividends. Of course everything is nowadays considered in terms of money. All values have become money values. The only important thing is what you put in the bank; what you get out of the bank; and what is the worth of your property; and all in terms of money. In whatever direction you turn money has become the base. We do not want more confusion; we do not want more difficulties; but we want to stop the rot, we want to stop demoralization.

It is said that I am misleading the youth of Pakistan, that I am misleading the student community. In what way have I ever told the student community that they should become negative or that they should become destructive? Whenever I have addressed the student community, I have always tried to take a constructive approach. I have always given them advice which came from my heart because this is the new generation of Pakistan and if I have articulated their views, if I have upheld the self-respect of Pakistan in the comity of nations and internally, why should the youth of Pakistan be penalized for that?

I tell you, gentlemen, the task is great but it is not insurmountable and it is an inevitable challenge. We should all work together in whatever party you want. And if anyone of you wants to join the Pakistan People’s Party, you will be welcome and you can get in touch with our friends here.

If you want any literature or any information about the party, it will be given to you. We are going to start our membership drive very soon. These things take time. But we had our convention on 30th November and 1st of December. Many difficulties were placed in our way. People who wanted to attend were prevented, victimized and everything that goes with it. Misreporting was in abundance in the press, but, by the Grace of God, it was a successful convention.