DEMAND TO RENAME EAST WING AS BANGLA DESH HAILED

Maulana Abdul Hamid Khan Bhasani, Chief of National Awami Party, yesterday welcomed the demand for renaming East Pakistan as Bangla Desh and said it was a genuine demand from the historical pint of view, reports APP.

On the eve of his departure for Tangail, the Maulana in a statement expressed his happiness over the recent demand for renaming the province. He said the intelligentsia and the press also supported the demand.

Maulana Bhasani said the nomenclature of Bangla Desh was not a new thing. He said this region of the country populated by the Bengali speaking people was known as Bangla Desh (Bengal) for long.

The NAP leader said that ill the regions of West Pakistan were known by their own names before One Unit. Only the name of Bangla Desh was snatched away and the name of East Pakistan was forcibly imposed. With the dismemberment of One Unit. all the provinces of West Pakistan would be known by their old names, he said, and add:.:. in view of this situation the name of East Pakistan for this region would be meaning:;;" So the name of Bangla Desh instead of East Pakistan was just and genuine, the concluded.

Mr. Ataur Rahman Khan, chief of National Progressive League, yesterday said the suggestion for renaming East Pakistan as Bangla Desh was logical and consequential when the Government had decided to restore the old provinces of West Pakistan.

In a statement, the former Chief Minister said the East Wing of Pakistan was originally East Bengal. He said the 1956 Constitution renamed it as East Pakistan. With the abrogation of the Constitution it reverted automatically to East Bengal. But no body thought of such reversion because our counterpart continued to be West Pakistan.

Mr. Ataur Rahman Khan said: " Now that the Government has decided to dismember the One Unit of West Pakistan and to restore the provinces that constituted West Pakistan to their original position, the question has naturally arisen to rename East Pakistan also. It is also logical and consequential. If there is no West Pakistan there need not be East Pakistan either.

" It is not, therefore, unreasonable that some of my esteemed friends have suggested to rename East Pakistan as Bangla Desh. They have also put forward some arguments in support of their suggestion. The suggestion itself is not bad, but there is constitutional question to be taken into consideration.

" West Pakistan was created by the establishment of West Pakistan Act of 1955. So it did not go with the Constitution. But before that Act came into force, it had been created by an executive order. President Yahya Khan has, therefore, decided to dissolve it by an executive order. Our case is different. It was not created by such an order so it cannot be renamed by the same method. It is the next Constitution to be framed which can redesignate it in any manner it likes. But till then it will have to be East Bengal as was before '56 Constitution."

(MORNING NEWS, Karachi and Dacca, December 8, 1969)

Source: Bangladesh Documents, vol-I, p.42-43