Sir, I welcome this article. The Speaker’s secretariat ought to be quite separate from the executive. It is a recognised fact everywhere. But I have noticed, Sir, that when men, with the best of intentions, come into power, they do not want to part with the power which is not due to them. Therefore, many persons had to fight for this right in the past. I can give you illustrations. Sir, that in the Municipal Corporations also the secretariat branch is mixed even now with the executive. When I was the Mayor of Karachi I had to fight very hard with the secretariat department and the secretariat executive department did not like to budge an inch and part with any power. Ultimately, they had to yield and today, in pursuance of the resolutions passed by the All India, Burma and Ceylon Mayors Conference, at Bombay, Calcutta and Madras there are separate secretariats for the Mayors. Therefore, it is in the fitness of things that the Speakers of all the provinces who met the other day under the chairmanship of the Speaker of the Parliament, decided that they must have a separate secretariat. I can cite you an illustration, Sir, that when the Speaker’s secretariat wanted pencils for the Members the executive refused to give them. I know of a province where at the instance of the House, Members complained that stenographers did not take down the proceedings properly, and therefore it was necessary that an additional stenographer should be added, but the executive refused to grant the additional stenographer even with the consent of the House. These conditions prevail even today and I am so glad that this article has been brought and has been put into the Constitution. If our executives, I mean the Ministers, had been reasonable, this article would not have been put into the Constitution and Parliament would surely have taken not of it. But when it is seen that even popular Ministers are not prepared to part with that power, there is no other alternative but to put such an article into the Constitution.
