Opponent Of Ayub Arrested

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31836, 14 November 1968, Page 13

Opponent Of Ayub Arrested

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter —Copyright) KARACHI, November 13. The former Pakistani Foreign Minister, Mr Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto—now chairman of the Left-wing People’s Party—was arrested in Lahore today, reliable sources said.

Mr Bhutto, in a speech to lawyers in Lahore yesterday criticised President Mohammed Ayub Khan’s recent offer to India of a “no-war” pact. He said Pakistan was the aggrieved country and the proposal should not have come from it>. Parts of Pakistan have been the scene of violent student riots in the last few days and in the northern city of Lahore there were three days of disturbances earlier this week when Mr Bhutto arrived to. address a meeting of lawyers: '' 1 ' *■■■ Anti-Government demonstrators hurled stones at the police and there were running fights in the street. The violence had an apparent offshoot last Sunday when a young man fired two shots near a dais where President Ayub Khan was waiting to address a rally in Peshawar in the north-west. The man was arrested.

Mr Bhutto, aged 41, has recently been trying to return to the political limelight at

the head of the opposition People’s Party. He ceased to be Foreign Minister in August, 1966, when President Ayub Khan announced he would not return after a period of sick leave.

Mr Bhutto has been strongly critical of President Ayub Khan’s Government and polities and there have been indications that he intended to contest the Presidential elections due in Pakistan in 1970.

He formed his Pakistan People’s Party on December 1, 1967, and announced it would be dedicated to bringing “Islamic socialism” to Pakistan. The new party joined five others in opposition to President Ayub Khan’s Government. The former Foreign Minister studied at Christ Church College, Oxford, and became a barrister in London’s Lincoln’s Inn in 1952. He was in charge of various ministries, including industries and natural resources, before becoming foreign minister in President Ayub Khan’s Government in February, 1963.