Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman placed his six-point proposal at an all-party meeting in Lahore on February 6, 1966, and followed it up with a strong movement for the autonomy of the then East Pakistan province. This movement eventually paved the way for the armed struggle for independence that resulted in the creation of Bangladesh.
Talking to The Independent, some veteran Awami League (AL) leaders, who had participated in the six-point movement at the grassroots level, reminisced about it to commemorate the golden jubilee of the historic six-point day.
"The response from the common people to this programme was huge. Continuous oppression exercised by the then Pakistani rulers on the people of East Pakistan made them agitated and frustrated. And this was a perfect moment for floating such demands. Bangabandhu sensed the pulse of the people and unveiled the six-point charter of demands,” said Shah Abdur Razzak, a veteran AL leader from Rangpur.
At that time, Razzak was president of the Rangpur unit of Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL). He said after getting instructions from Bangabandhu, local leaders of the district held a series of secret meetings to make the six-point movement a success. "We couldn't hold such meetings openly for fear of being arrested," he added.
“Bangabandhu came to Rangpur, along with Tajuddin Ahmed and other leaders, to mobilise public opinion in favour of the  demands. He addressed a meeting at the Rangpur Public Library ground,” recalled Razzak, who later became a lawmaker and  president of the Rangpur district AL.
After the Lahore meeting, the six-point programme, together with a proposal of movement for the realisation of the demands, was placed before the meeting of the AL working committee in Dhaka on February 21. The proposal was carried out unanimously.
A booklet on the six-point programme, with an introduction by Bangabandhu and Tajuddin Ahmad, was published. Another booklet, ‘Amader Banchar Dabi: 6-dafa Karmasuchi’ (‘Our demands for existence: 6-point Programme’), was published in the name of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and was distributed at a council meeting of the AL, which was held on March 18.
Railway minister Mujibul Huq was then a student of HSC in Comilla Victoria College. Recalling the events of the six-point movement, the minister yesterday told The Independent that the movement was welcomed by people from all walks of life.
“As a member of the BCL, I took part in a number of programmes to press home the demand,” he said.
Like other parts of the country, the movement instantly caught hold of the popular imagination in Bogra.
“I was then a student of Class IX. District BCL president Abdus Samad and other leaders came to our school one day. Samad informed us of Bangabandhu’s announcement of the six-point charter of demands,” Majnu, secretary of the Bogra Awami League, told The Independent yesterday. “Everyone started to believe that whatever Bangabandhu was saying was in the interests of the people of East Pakistan, and his six-point programme was an instant hit,” he pointed out. Emergency was promulgated during that period by the Pakistani military ruler, Field Marshal Aye Khan, but people defied that to demonstrate support for the six–point charter of demands.
Mentioning the background of the movement and its impact, veteran columnist Abdul Gaffar Choudhury said 26 years after the Lahore Resolution was placed by AK Fazlul Huq, the six-point charter of demands was placed in the same city by another Bengali leader, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. “The Lahore resolution in 1940 was the harbinger of the creation of Pakistan, and the six-point demand in 1966 initiated a war which gave birth to independent Bangladesh. Pakistan was created to establish a homeland for Indian Muslims, and Bangladesh freed itself from Pakistan for the emancipation of the then East Pakistan and establish their nation state,” he added.
“The military junta did not accept the proposal and tried to suppress the movement with an iron hand. Eventually this movement transformed into an armed struggle of independence for the people of Bangladesh. So, in a way, the six-point movement is more significant than Magna Carta,” he observed. The six points are: 1) The Constitution should provide for a Federation of Pakistan in its true sense on the basis of the Lahore Resolution, and the parliamentary form of government with supremacy of a Legislature directly elected on the basis of universal adult franchise;
2) The federal government should deal with only two subjects: Defence and Foreign Affairs, and all other residuary subjects shall be vested in the federating states;
3) Two separate, but freely convertible currencies for two wings should be introduced; or if this is not feasible, there should be one currency for the whole country, but effective constitutional provisions should be introduced to stop the flight of capital from East to West Pakistan. Furthermore, a separate Banking Reserve should be established, and separate fiscal and monetary policies be adopted for East Pakistan;
4) The power of taxation and revenue collection shall be vested in the federating units and the federal centre will have no such power on the issue. The federation will be entitled to a share in the state taxes to meet its expenditures; 5) There should be two separate accounts for the foreign exchange earnings of the two wings; the foreign exchange requirements of the federal government should be met by the two wings equally or in a ratio to be fixed; indigenous products should move free of duty between the two wings, and the Constitution should empower the units to establish trade links with foreign countries; and  6) East Pakistan should have a separate militia or paramilitary force.