Dacca talks fail
Pakistan today appeared to have plunged deeper into crisis with the breakdown of the talks between President Yahya Khan and the East Pakistan leader, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. Evidently the talks failed when Sheikh Mujib who has been ruling East Pakistan for three weeks in defense of the military regime, refused to accept President Yahya’s offer to end the martial law “within one hour of the first meeting of the National Assembly.”
Sheikh Mujib insisted until the last minute that the martial law must be withdrawn before the inaugural session of the National Assembly. President Yahya apparently took the position that he could not operate in a vacuum as Head of State between the time when the martial law was withdrawn and a new Constitution was made. He wanted the National Assembly to pass & provisional constitution to replace the martial law that the governments at the where and in the provinces could function with some constitutional sanction.
It appears that even if Sheikh Mujib himself had been prepared to accept President Yahya’s formula he would not have been allowed to do so by the highly emerged public opinion, Sheikh Mujib is believed to have declined to prolong the talk because, as the General Secretary of the Awami League stated he had said all he has to say on the Constitutional problem. Mr Bhutto, the West Pakistan leader, said he was trying his best to reach some understanding to break the statement but the talks have run into sand on the question of provincial autonomy which was enshrined in the Awami League’s six point formula.
Mr Bhutto felt that the autonomy sought by the Awami League was more than autonomy. It bordered on sovereignty.
Mr Bhutto said that in principle he agreed to the four-point demand of Sheikh Mujib namely the withdrawal of martial law, transfer of power, inquiry into the killing in East Pakistan and the return of the army to barracks. But although Mr Bhutto did not spell it out, evidently he agreed with the President that no constitutional vacuum should be created by the sudden lifting of martial law.
In this situation President Yahya has two options. Either he can try to restore civilian administration and public order or he can make a declaration that martial law would be lifted as soon as the national assembly had passed the presentational constitution.
Reference: The Time : 26 March 1971