PAK OFFENSIVE:
Big Push to counter
Anti-Yahya Policy
London, May 5 (AP)
Pakistani envoys have quietly launched a big push to counter deepening misgivings among the great powers over President Yahya Khan’s drive against the independenceseeking rebles of East Bengal.
Senior diplomats reported Wednesday a former President, and ex-Foreign Minister and a third mysetrious emissary who has yet to be identified have been assigned special missions for that purpose in America, Europe, Asia. .
A central theme running through the presentation of Pakistan’s case in London, at least, was that India is to blame for the insurrection threatening to tear East and West Pakistan permanently apart.
Sources said the envoy sent to contact with United States and Canadian leaders in Washington and Ottawa is Ayub Khan, Yahya’s predecessor as Priesident. Nominally seeking medical treatment Ayub, according to information here, hopes to meet top administration readers to rally their understanding and sympathy for Yahya’s policy.
Former Foreign Minister Arshad Hussain saw Prime Minister Heath in London last Week. It was he who charged that India had instigated Mujib, the jailed East Pakistani leader, to stoke the of rebellion into flames.
Hussain also claimed that West Pakistani forces had restored control in the breakaway eastern sector. And sources reported that, in response to Heath’s questioning about the entry of international relief teams, Hussain insisted Yahya’s government would tolerate no outside intervention.
Heath, sources said, urged the envoy to convey to Yahya best again that Britain wants the fighting in East Pakistan to end soon- and efforts launched for a political solution.
After stopping off in London Hussain went on to Paris and Moscow. The Soviet Union has become increasingly critical in public of Yahya’s offensive against the rebels.
Informants claimed the third Pakistani envoy slipped quietly into Communist China within the past week. They were unable to identify him. Pakistan authorities have not confirmed published reports that talks have been started with China for additional economic and military aid.
The Pakistani crisis plainly confronts each of the big five powers with a major policy problem.
All are counting Pakistan for its friendship. All are helping it. None wants the country lost to rivals. Yet public opinion, at least in Western countries, has become increasingly agaitated at the continuation of bloodshed, often with the aid of Western weapons.
In Britain
In the British house of Commons, for instance, about half the -630 members have signed an all-party motion calling for an end of the fignting. It will be debated May 14. Conscious of public unease the Heath government has been exercising some pressures in the hope of getting Yahya to accept international relief teams in East Pakistan.
Heath’s men at the same time have claimed down on the cash sale of small arms and ammuntion to Pakistan. Other material which could be used against the rebels also have been quiety embargoed.
And in the Commons Tuesday Heath told a questioner that British aid to Pakistan was not political and therefore no immediate cut off was contemplated.
However Britain and 10 other mebers of a Western aid-Pakistan consortium, even now are pondering how long they can continue their program. The consortium includes the United States and Japan.
It sent a ranking official, Peter Cargill, to investigate Pakistan’s economic and financial situation in the context of the future of the overall and program.
Yahya’s government has asked the consortium to suspend all Pakistan’s debt repayments for six months.
Reference : Indonesian Observer, 08.05.1971