Candidate for Lahore Speech at Public Meeting, Lahore November 2, 1970

I am very grateful to you that you have always sided with us. The time for speeches is over and the elections are being held on the 7th of December. You have to decide which party you are going to support. My only appeal to you is that you should cast your votes according to the dictates of your conscience. I don’t ask you to cast your vote for me. I only want you to be judicious. If you take into account the fact that our party has served Pakistan in the past, it has awakened the poor masses and made sacrifices for their cause and that I have given the country an independent foreign policy and faced India resolutely, you will decide to support us. I differed with Ayub Khan at Tashkent in the interest of Pakistan’s integrity and left the Government. After that I formed a party of the masses. This popular party made sacrifices facing a dictatorship. It is my faith that if you take into consideration these past services, you will support the Pakistan People’s Party.

This is your own party. It has come into being because of you. It is determined to face the capitalists and the external enemies of Pakistan. Internally, the capitalists and their stooges are joining hands against this party. Those who are opposed to Pakistan are opposing the Pakistan People’s Party. From this very constituency there are three candidates besides this humble servant of yours. Maulana Maudoodi who is himself not a candidate, is issuing appeals to my two opponents that one of them should withdraw from the contest. He wants that our opponents should face Bhutto unitedly. Maulana Sahib is not keen to defeat Bhutto. He is anxious to defeat the people of Pakistan. I can assure him that even if they put up a united front against me the valiant people of Lahore will give them a crushing defeat and none of their efforts will succeed. General Sarfraz, who is opposing me had taken to his heels from the Lahore front during the 1965 war. Why is he running away from the political front now? He should face me on this front at least. Everyone can see that there is a rising flood of the people’s awakening. It is very difficult for our opponents to stand against this tide. They have fallen so low that in spite of the fact that they call themselves “Islam Pasands,” they are raising objections why a Sindhi should contest from the Punjab. These so-called “Islam Pasands” should at least follow the basic principles of Islam. Islam has taught us that all Muslims are brothers and there should be unity among them. If we regard the Turks, the Arabs and the Afghans as our brothers why should a person who has served Pakistan and who was the Foreign Minister of Pakistan, not of Sindh, be discriminated against? They should be happy if such a person contests from the Punjab. On the one hand, they proclaim that they are against territorial prejudices and, on the other, they are using the same prejudices against me. I welcome them to contest from Sindh.

I am contesting from the Punjab, Sindh and NWFP because I want to give a befitting reply to the enemies of Pakistan who are propagating against the integrity of Pakistan. The Indians and the imperialists have been propagating that Pakistan will soon disintegrate because there is no unity among its people. If I succeed from the Punjab, NWFP and Sindh it will be symbolic of the unity and integrity of the people of Pakistan. I have served you in the past and I promise that I shall continue to do so in the future by bringing about an economic change. Our struggle is for establishing the rule of the peasants, the workers, the students and the intellectuals. We are ready for all sacrifices for the cause of the common man.