YAHYA KHAN ORDERS NEW CONSTITUTION
BYE ELECTIONS TO REPLACE AWAMI LEAGUE MEMBERS
Pakistan, June 29 (AP)
PRESIDENT Yahya Khan of Pakistan announced Monday he had ordered a “committee of experts” to prepare a new constitution and bye elections to replace disqualified Awami League Members but, he made clear, he had no intention of nullifying the December elections.
And he proposed a “transfer of power to the elected representatives of the people of Pakistan within four months of so from today.”
The President, in a 50 Minute nation wide broadcast, said he had appointed “a committee of experts,” whom he did not name, to draw up the constitution- the third for the Moslem nation in the 24 years of independence.
He said the constitution would be based on Islamic ideology- “On the basis of which Pakistan was created and preserved”.
-And would provide “maximum autonomy” to the provinces.
But Yahya made clear that there would be no room in the new governmental setup for the banned East Pakistani-based Awam League which had 167 members in the 313 seat National Assembly before civil strife broke out in the province in March.
Nor did Yahya said anything about the fate of the 32 year old Awami League leaders Sheik Mujibur Rahman who was jailed on March 26 a few hours after the Pakistani Army crack down on the East Pakistan Political movement for demanding greater automony for the province- a demand Yahya seemed to concede, in part”, in his latest broadcast.
Yahya stressed that the results of provincial and national elections held in December and January would stand- although some Awami League leader would be disqualified from their seats for engaging in “anti state activities.”
The vacancies would be filled through by-elections, the President added. There is no question of holding fresh (general) election.
He said “The mischief of a few misguided element should not be allowed to nulify the results of the elections.”
Yahya said he had “not finally assessed” the number of Awami League leaders who would be disqualified.
But he appealed to “those members of the defunct Awami League who had nothing to do” with the party leardership and who “were not guilty of anti national acts, to come in forward and play their part in rebuilding Pakistan.”
Yahya said that the new constitution would be Promulgated on the day the national assembly is called for without the possibility of the formation of any new East Pakistan based political party to replace the Awami League.
He said under the guidelines he had given the constitutional committee, the new constitution would not permit the existence of any political party which is confined to a specific region and which is not national in any practical sense.
The People Party of former foreign minister Zulfikar Ali Bhuttu, which won a majority of the national assembly seats from West Pakistan, evidently would be allowed to continue functioning, as it had an organization in all four provinces of the western wing.
CALLS FOR RETURN OF REFUGEES
Yehya reiterated that the East Pakistanis who had fled to India were free to return home.
“I repeat once again that all citizens of Pakistan, regardless of caste or creed who crossed the border and went into India because of panic created by rebels miscreants and others must return to their homes and earths, he said.
“The government of East Pakistan has made necessary arrangement for their return.”
Reference : Indonesian Observer, 29.06.1971