The Reminiscences of Zafrulla Khan — Page 251
235 REMINISCENCES OF SIR MUHAMMAD ZAFRULLA KHAN Question : Now, the final point on the UN is the role of the President and the committee chairmen in the selection of the slate for next year. I don't think you should confine your remarks strictly to the case as it is but also the case as you think it might be. Zafrulla : In the past, very often, not always, the chairmanship of the First Committee, if the functions have been properly discharged has been considered as giving you some claim to the Presidency the following year, provided somebody else has not a stronger claim or some other ground, for instance, regional grouping. That has always counted, and I consider it need not be only the chairmanship of the First Committee but the chairmanship of any committee, if the job has been outstandingly well done, because that shows how the particular individual can manage the business of a committee and interpret rules and see that the committee does not get into a tangle and when it tends to get into a tangle to head it off and that kind of thing. It is a test of those qualities which would help in the Presidency. So far as the conduct of the business of the committees is concerned, I consider it is a more arduous task than the Presidency. In the first place, a great deal more deference is paid to the President anyhow, and on borderline cases the Assembly tends to support him rather than to obstruct him in the way he wants to go. Therefore, somebody who has come out extremely well from his chairmanship of a committee, so far as individual qualities are concerned, has a good chance to make the grade as President. If it should be the turn of his group and his group puts him forward as their candidate, he would have no difficulty at all. So far as the Presidency is concerned, there were some Presidents who were so outstanding that when one thinks of the Presidency, their names and their personalities jump to one's mind; and some don't come to one's mind at all; they might have conducted the business well but they did not leave an impress on anything. These are some of those imponderables that one cannot be too precise about, the more time passes the more the judgment of time becomes apparent: Those who are remembered for something or the other, who have left some impression are remembered, the others fade out. Question : Now, do you think that the President should have a voice in choosing the committee chairmen for the following year, based on his knowledge of the personalities and also the abilities of men?