The Reminiscences of Zafrulla Khan — Page 258
242 REMINISCENCES OF SIR MUHAMMAD ZAFRULLA KHAN When I arrived in Karachi, I found the reason for the Prime Minister's telegram was that direct action had been proclaimed to take place over this matter on the Friday. Immediately after the Friday service people would issue from the mosques in processions and create a crisis for the government. The telegram meant that I should not arrive in Karachi before this happened, because the Prime Minister was already finding himself in difficulties with his Cabinet. The Cabinet wanted him to take action to stop the direct action, and he was not willing to make a move. Question : Yes, they would have really focussed on you. Zafrulla : That was the difficulty, and the Cabinet divided in that way could not prove very effective. I learnt that on the Thursday evening a Cabinet meeting had been called to decide what to do about this threat of direct action for the following afternoon. The Cabinet sat until 10 or 10:30 p. m. and they could not come to a decision as the Prime Minister would not accept the view of the majority of his colleagues - that he should take action, and the only action that was left to be taken was to arrest the leaders under the Preventive Detention sections. The meeting was adjourned to 10 a. m. next day. Then, Gurmani, who was then Minister of the Interior, and Amin 'ud-din, who was then Governor of Sind, went together to the Governor's residence where Gurmani was dining that night, and while they were at dinner news was brought to them that the 'ulema having learnt that the Cabinet meeting had been adjourned until 10 O'clock the next morning without having arrived at any decision, had decided to start direct action after the dawn prayers and not to wait till the mid-day service. So, the Governor of the Province and the Minister of the Interior went to the Prime Minister's residence to insist that the Cabinet should be summoned immediately in view of this development. They arrived there and found the leader of the 'ulema, Maulana Ihtishamul Haq, closeted with the Prime Minister. He had come to warn him of what they were going to do! So, the Cabinet was summoned, but to that Cabinet meeting Ch. Mohammad Ali, who was then Finance Minister was not invited as he had suffered a heart attack some months before and it was thought best not to disturb him. The discussion went on for a couple of hours until