The Reminiscences of Zafrulla Khan — Page 182
166 REMINISCENCES OF SIR MUHAMMAD ZAFRULLA KHAN resolved, you would be prepared to accept my point of view, then equally we can carry on on that basis, and then also the people should know how we are carrying on. I do not attach too much importance to constitutional theories and I am willing to fall in with whichever way of conducting business should appeal to you. " There was this sort of steel inside the velvet: I am prepared to fall in with your views, but the people must know. The people must know meant that the people would not tolerate that situation; they would insist that he should have the last word. Then he asked for our views. Liaqat Ali Khan tried to play safe; he would not go as far as Jinnah perhaps had wished him to go. I suppose he was conscious that he, as Prime Minister, carried the responsibility for decisions, though he was quite willing, both in the way of reporting to Jinnah and asking for his advice to work in accord with him. But he was somewhat reluctant to yield the whole position, and, of course, he spoke on behalf of the Cabinet, he was the head of the government. Mr. Jinnah was anxious to know the views of each minister, and as I was next in order of seniority, he asked me for mine. I said, "The Prime Minister has spoken for the Cabinet. All I wish to add is that so far as my portfolio is concerned, my fear is not that you might interfere too much with my conduct of foreign affairs; it is that you may not be able to afford enough time to give me the guidance that I may need from you. " I confess that was a somewhat diplomatic kind of reply, but it seemed to please him. Fate intervened in a way, and matters did not come to a head. After this Cabinet meeting, in which the position which he wished to occupy was more or less accepted by the Cabinet, his health began to deteriorate faster than it had done during the previous months. He experienced a sort of cycle: he would improve a bit but not as much as he had done before, and then he would go down again, and then next time he would not be able to win back to the same degree of strength. He went to Quetta to recuperate, and returned to Karachi a few hours before the end. Liaqat Ali Khan was a good chief to work with. He was pro- nothing, and he was con-nothing. He looked at everything from the point of view of Pakistan. I never detected any kind of bias in his temperament, either for or against persons or causes or anything; he was devoted in every way. During the four years that we worked together,