Let us go nearer home. In East Pakistan members are returned by joint electorate to all the self-governing bodies, like Union Boards, District Boards, the Municipalities, the School Boards and so on. No one up till now has doubled the system un-Islamic or should it be said that it is only when it comes to electing representatives to a Legislature that the joint electorate becomes un-Islamic, but is absolutely Islamic in all other cases even in the election of our President.
In my opinion this problem must be viewed only from one angle, namely, what is in the interest of Pakistan? As I have pointed out, joint electorate will help to create one country and one nation and destroy all fissiparous tendencies. Separate electorate will keep alive the flame of difference based on religion, which will in their turn lead to differences in outlook and even discrimination between citizens and citizens. However, much we shall endeavor to avoid it. Separate electorate is unhealthy if we want to create a nation. It IS useful if we wish to divide. It is a powerful weapon for division. If we search Our hearts sincerely, we shall find that the present Muslim demand for separate electorate is based on deep suspicion and distrust and even hatred of the non-Muslim element. I know that the scars resultant on the partition has not yet healed. Generations will pass before they will heal, but the process of healing must begin, and, living as we must, side by side, with the realistic conviction that the transfer of population is impossible, that the migration of the 4.5 crores of Muslims in India may well result in Pakistan being swept into the sea, we have to accept the fact that Pakistan will remain a country inhabited by Muslims and non-Muslims all of whom must have equal rights and are entitled to be treated as equal citizens. This can only be produced by a feeling, that all are entitled equally to participate in the future of the country through the political institutions of a democratic state. I know that the protagonists of separate electorate will loudly deny that they have any such feeling of distrust, suspicion and hatred against non-Muslims but we cannot escape basic facts and the only way to prove that they entertain no such feeling is to accept joint electorate.
Those who support separate electorate declare that in the system of joint electorate, the Hindus will dominate over the Muslims, capture all the seats, corrupt the Muslims and so on. It is strange that this has been voiced in an area of Pakistan where there are not more than 2 percent Hindus. Strange that these people in West Pakistan, who know nothing at all about. East Pakistan, should try and impose on it this political panacea, and pose as its saviors, as if the Muslims of East Pakistan understand nothing. Do they not realize that it constitutes a slanderous condemnation of the Muslims of East Pakistan, where Hindus still dwell in significant numbers? Let me tell those who think in this manner that there is no such danger. Muslims of East Pakistan, who have not lost their faith in themselves and who basically, are true Muslims, know how to perform their duty to their country. Whether we have joint or separate electorate matters little in West Pakistan where the non Muslims are in such a negligible minority, but it does matter a lot in East Pakistan and the Muslims of East
Pakistan pray to be saved from those who consider them so contemptible that they will sell the interests of the country for the money of non-Muslims. In view of this it is hardly relevant to point out that the wealthy Hindus have migrated from this country, for I do not admit that the Muslims of East
