The first point against me is-
“You have no idea of financial discipline or distribution of resources. When you take a project in hand you desire that the resource of the whole country should be diverted to your project even at the cost of all their activities if need be.”
“Wittingly or unwittingly you made it a point never to say 'no' to any demand, however, impossible or manifestly unreasonable that demand might be, thus taking credit for whatever was accomplished and passing on the blame to the Centre for whatever had to be denied. You took the least line of resistance.”
At no time did the people of East Pakistan push me into accepting impossible and manifestly unreasonable demands for which, according to your statement, I am supposed to have taken credit whilst passing all the blame to the Centre. Nor have I at any stage been devoid of financial discipline and sense of proper distribution of resources, as to have desired that the resources of the whole country should be diverted to any particular project. If anyone is trying to make you believe such stories it must be out of sheer malice and complete disregard for your own sense of reasoning. You yourself are fully aware of the policy and procedures followed with regard to scrutiny, sanction, allocation of funds and implementation of all projects and demands of Provinces. According to the policy decided between the Centre and the Provinces it was my duty to put up the maximum projects, subject to approval, with the object of increasing the absorbing capacity of the Province for allocations made. Once the Centre makes annual allocations there is no scope for further demands by the Provinces and at the same time the Centre should not change allocations once commitments have been made to the Provinces. There is no doubt that we had sometimes to fight tough battles at the Governors' conferences with the Central Economic Council and other Agencies over our sanctions but it was in the normal course and should have been taken in the best of spirit and appreciated and not brought as allegations.
Another point raised against me relates to my resignation when you asked me to go to East Pakistan as Governor. This matter was fully discussed several times and also in my letter or resignation written on that occasion which is a complete answer to your remarks in the third paragraph of your letter under discussion. To refresh your memory, I am enclosing herewith a copy of that letter of resignation. Your statement that you had almost to force me to leave for East Pakistan on a special plane surprises me. It was only after you sent General Burki to say that you were coming to apologies to me for having lost your temper and accused me of being afraid to go to East Bengal, that I left for Dacca without waiting to meet you. I did this to save you the embarrassment and also to prove to you that I was not afraid to go to East Pakistan although my work at the Centre and specially that of rehabilitation of refugees in West Pakistan was incomplete and my going away at that time was to the detriment of the people as explained in detail in my letter of resignation dated 14th April '60. No one forced me to leave; in fact, you were not even aware that I had left for Dacca; nor was any special plane arranged by you. In order to be there in time, I had to do over 12 hours of night flying during Nor-Wester period in a small plane, the only thing available. It is extremely unfair that you should now refer to this incident as a point against me when after I took over you made appreciative remarks about my having done so.
