The Riots of 1953 — Page 98
98 the U. N. O. , it is stated that the Arab delegates asked you to prolong your stay by a few days. What was your answer to them? A. The technical answer to this question is that there was no meeting of the Assembly of U. N. O. in Geneva in 1947. The meetings were held outside New York, at Lake Success and Flushing Meadows. The incident referred to in the question arose as follows. The Palestine question, which came up for discussion during that session, had been fully discussed and debated. It had even been voted upon in Committee. I had myself been Chairman of one of the sub-committees appointed to consider this question. Towards the close of the session, some of the representatives of the Arab States, learning of my intention to return a few days before the end of the session, requested me to stay on till the end the session. I was then constitutional adviser to His Highness the Nawab of Bhopal. I was holding no office under the Pakistan Government. The greater part, in fact almost the whole, of the work of the session had been concluded. Two delegates on the Pakistan Delegation had already been permitted by me to leave. Even if I had left at that stage, there were two or three other delegates on our delegation who could have adequately looked after such formal proceedings as had yet to take place. In the meantime, while I had been away in connection with the session or the Assembly, there had been serious disturbances in East Punjab during which all sorts of horrors were practised against the Muslims. Qadian, which had been my own home also for several years, had suffered along with the rest of those areas. My own house had been looted. During my absence, my only sister had died. My brother, next younger to me, was