Speech on the occasion of laying
the Foundation-Stone of the
building of the Valika Textile Mills
Ltd. on 26th September, 1947
It has given me great pleasure to come here today to lay the foundation-stone
of the Valika Textile Mills. Pakistan is at present mostly an agricultural
State and for manufactured goods it is dependent upon the outside world.
If Pakistan is to play its proper role in the world to which its size,
manpower and resources entitle it; it must develop industrial potential
side by side with its agriculture and give its economy an industrial bias.
By industrializing our State, we shall decrease our dependence on the outside
world for necessities of life; we will give more employment to our people
and will also increase the resources of the State.
Nature has blessed us with good many raw materials of industry and it
is up to us to utilize them to the best of the State and its people. I
hope this venture of your will prove the precursor of many such enterprises
and bring prosperity to all concerned.
I also hope that in planning your factory, you have provided for proper
residential accommodation and other amenities for the workers, for no industry
can thrive without contented labor.
The Quaid-i-Azam went on and said that he had at heart this satisfaction
that he had been called upon to lay the foundation-stone of the Textile
Mills which was the first of its kind. He said that he was told by a very
well-known gentleman in Sindh, who has got a very long experience, that
if Sindh were given full opportunity, it could be three times more prosperous
in agriculture and industry than Egypt so far as agricultural potentialities
were concerned, there was no shortage. That was Sindh's biggest fortune.
Sindh had been surplus in the production of food.
The Quaid-i-Azam, therefore, urged Sindhis that they had to develop
other fields like science, commerce and industry. He said that they should
realize that the real strength and power of the State depended upon its
capacity to produce.
For commerce and trade, money was needed and Sindh being prosperous
in agriculture, its power was great and we could feel the various channels
is like educational, social and political. The way in which we could consolidate
the State was by industrializing as fast as we could.
He then blessed the sponsors of the Mills and said that it would not
only be the first and the last mill but many more would follow.
Pakistan Zindabad