enable him to learn about the antecedents of the various candidates, as, these days. candidates can reach all the elector far more through the Press than directly at meetings. If the representative form of Government had been in existence here, with two well-defined parties, for as long a time as in England and America, one might have relied on the innate shrewdness of the average adult living in towns and villages, because, in that case, there would have been long established traditions, of families attached to one or the other leading parties, to guide him. I'or instance, in the United States, there are families known to have belonged for years to the Republican or to the Democratic Party, and the normal tendency for an average elector there is to support the party which his father belonged, as from his boyhood he would have been hearing about that particular party. This kind of a division of families in every locality, in favor of cither of the major partics, docs influence the opinions of even those who do not know how to read and write, but, in Pakistan, the representative form or government, on a full scale, can be said to have come into force only since 1947 and even if the earlier stages are taken into consideration, elections on a fairly extensive scale were held only in 1937. This period has been too short for any traditions to grow. In these circumstances, a person who cannot read or write, and has no compelling necessity to acquaint himself with the merits of the various candidates, cannot be trusted to discharge the functions of a voter merely because he is shrewd in local matters.
106...........
The percentage of literacy in our country, according to the recent census, is only 15, and the means of spreading information, compared to the conditions in England, are very rudimentary indeed. There is a very small percentage of persons who read newspapers, and, as regards the interest taken by the people at the time of elections, the figures furnished by the Government of East Pakistan show that, at the last election held in that Province on universal franchise, only 37.2% polled. Figures about West Pakistan are not readily available, but we have no reason to think that the percentage that polled in that province was larger.
107. It was urged before us that, as the late Constitution conferred universal suffrage on the people of this country, it would be unwise to take away that right. especially when elections in the provinces had once been held on that basis. But we find that what happened at those very elections indicates that this type of franchise is too premature for us. This is amply illustrated by the 1954 election in East Pakistan. We have had occasion to observe in the first chapter, while dealing with the causes of the failure of the parliamentary form of government, that the administration by the Muslim League government in East Pakistan was better than what followed after their crushing defeat. There was stability of government from August 1947 till the beginning of 1954 in that province. If is, no doubt, true that the party in power had not kept itself in touch with he trend of public opinion in the province and, therefore, was hesitant to hold by-elections, though the number of vacancies was going up and ultimately ended at 35, but is did not deserve the crushing defeat which it suffered. From information laid before us, it seems clear that this defeat was inflicted in an upsurge of emotions, strong prejudice against the Muslim League, having been created in the minds of the people by extravagant and fantastic propaganda. One of the witnesses examined before us in East Pakistan, who was
