Bhutto still lias hopes of end to strife

Press, 5 July 1977, Page 8

Bhutto still lias hopes of end to strife

NZPA-Reuter Islamabad The Pakistani Prime Minister (Mr Zulfikar Ali Bhutto) said yesterday that he was not without hope that the Government and Opposition would reach a settlement on the fouri month-long political crisis in Pakistan. He said that the Opposition Pakistan National Alliance had handed ten more demands to him which were to be met before the two : sides could sign a formal grement to end the agitation. Mr Bhutto told reporteis, ithat in reaching a settlement > with P.N.A. he would “have Ito balance the country’s long and short-term interests, because i do not want the, country’s interest to suffer." He said: “I am not without hope that the Govern-: ment will reach a settlement; with the Opposition on the : present political crisis in Pa- i Ikistan.” More than 300 people have been killed in shootings by the security forces > since the March National 1 Assembly elections, which:

I. the Opposition maintained (were rigged in favour of the ruling Pakistan Peoples i Party. A verbal understanding ■ between Mr Bhutto and the 1 P.N.A’s Maulana Mufti r Mahmood, was reached on - Saturday. But the Opposition ; insisted that the agreement would have to receive P.N.A. ; central council approval before signing since it fell ; short of Opposition expectations. i The verbal agreement inI eluded the dissolution this . I month of the National . Assembly; fresh elections for I the National Assembly and four provincial (State) legislatures of the provinces of Punjab. Sino, Baluchistan, and the North-West Frontier in the first week of October: a new, and more powerful (election commission to ensure clean ballots under the I supervision of the judiciary and the army; and a joint I Government-Opposition implementation council to oversee administrative and other arrangements for elecI tions and election-related matters between now and polling day.