Soon after Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was elected as a member of Constituent Assembly of Pakistan in 1954, Ghulam Muhammad, on October 24, 1954 dissolved the Constituent Assembly and placed armed guards outside the Assembly Hall.
In accordance with the opinion given by the Federal Court a new Constituent Assembly was elected and a constitution ultimately came into force on March 23, 1956.
The First Constituent Assembly of Pakistan came into existence under Indian Independence Act 1947, at the time of independence. Its roots go back to 1946, when elections for constituent assembly of United India were held to decide the destiny of All India Muslim League. First meeting of constituent assembly of united India was held on 19th December 1946, but Muslim League boycotted since they demanded a separate constituent assembly for Pakistan. With the acceptance of June 3 plan a separate constituent assembly was formulated for Pakistan.
The inaugural session of the first constituent assembly of Pakistan was held in Karachi in August 1947. J N Mandal was elected as temporary chairman of Constituent Assembly of Pakistan. Subsequently Jinnah was selected as the president of the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan, on August 11, 1947 and Maulvi Tamizuddin Khan as its deputy president. The Constituent Assembly of Pakistan functioned from 1947 to 1954 and involved two major parties—the Muslim League representing all Muslims with the exception of few and The Congress Party representing the 12 million Hindus in Pakistan.
There were 69 members in the constituent assembly; this number was increased to 79 later in order to give representation to princely states and refugees.
There, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, a member of the Constituent Assembly, made a historic speech pinpointing the discriminatory treatment exercised by the central government.
The speech
Sir, I am only pointing it out to you. Sir, it is like this there are two hands to the body of Pakistan. One is West Pakistan and the other is East Pakistan. They are making one hand strong and the other hand weak.
Sir, this policy is wrong and will ruin the country. In the Central Government Service, those who form 56% population are not getting 5% share. The East Bengal people are educated but they are not getting their share.
Sir, we do not blame the West Pakistan people. In fact we want autonomy for them also. We blame the ruling junta.
These jaigirdars, zamiders, these big landlords and ruling junta of the West Pakistan has suppressed the people’s opinion of West Pakistan. They are so much suppressed, they cannot cry, they cannot demand, but the people of East Pakistan are politically conscious.
They challenge anybody and everybody. They challenge Mr Fazlul Haq, Mr Suhrawardy, Moulana Bhasani; they challenge their leaders. They tell their leaders, “You have done this wrong and we will not vote for you,” but they have been suppressed, persecuted and they have been economically ruined. They have no land; no shelter. But, Sir, we have nothing against the people of West Pakistan, but against the ruling junta, who have entered the Constituent Assembly through the back door, one who were not even in the District Board and have become Foreign Minister of Pakistan and such people want to speak on behalf of the people of East Pakistan and say that the people of East Bengal support this draft Constitution.
Sir, I have just come from the East Pakistan and know the mind of the people there. I know that they have rejected this un-Islamic, undemocratic and dictatorial Constitution, and it cannot be accepted by the people of Pakistan, particularly the people of East Pakistan.
These people are thinking that they will sit in Karachi like Mr Pathar, he will never go back to East Pakistan; he is domiciled here. So these people are also thinking that they will earn some money and make a house here. They cannot go back because they are going against the demand of full regional autonomy which is the demand of the people.
You can kill us, you can jail us. Sometimes we hear that our lives are in danger, but we are not afraid. We have been elected by the people on the basis of 21-point programme on the basis of regional autonomy. They can betray but we cannot.
