Pledge by Bhutto

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32860, 8 March 1972, Page 17

Pledge by Bhutto

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) NEW DELHI, March 7.

President Bhutto announced in a nationwide broadcast last night that martial law would be lifted in Pakistan on August 14, “God willing.”

The National Assembly would meet on April 14, for a maximum of three days to discuss an interim Constitution, he added.

Mr Bhutto said that these and other points had been agreed in discussions he had held with leaders of the National Awami Party and the Jamiat U 1 Ulema Party. It had been agreed that the Assembly would appoint a committee to draft a new Constitution, the committee would report by August 1, and the Assembly would meet again on August 14, when martial law would be “lifted, and buried for ever.” Mr Bhutto said that the majority parties of the provinces had arrived at a political settlement of the crucial issues facing the nation. ' Besides his own Pakistan

People’s Party (which won most seats in the 1970 elections in Punjab and Sind), they are the National Awami Party, which is the most powerful in the North-West Frontier province, and the Jamait U 1 Ulema, in Baluchistan.

To assuage feelings in those provinces, Mr Bhutto said, the Government would appoint governors there only

in consultation with the majority parties. The interim Constitution would be based on the 1935 Government of India Act and the 1947 Independence Act, “with consequential adjustments.” The four state assemblies

would convene on April 21, a week after the National Assembly. Mr Bhutto expressed his

desire to end martial law in these terms: “I want categorically to inform the nation that the curse of martial law, which I never wanted, will be buried for ever, God willing, on August 14, 1972.” Martial law was proclaimed by President Yahya Khan, the former Pakistan Army commander, when he took power on March 25, 1969, after serious rioting in the country. Mr Bhutto took over as President and chief martial law administrator when General Yahya had resigned on December 20 after Pakistan’s defeat in what is how Bangladesh.