পাতা:বাংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্র (চতুর্দশ খণ্ড).pdf/৫৩৫

503 বাংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্রঃ চতুর্দশ খন্ড President Yahya Khan's broadcast disclosed that he plans to place before the National Assembly a new constitution devised by a committee in four months' time. Martial law, he said, would continue for a time although his final objective remained a transfer of power to civilian authorities. There would be no new general election but by elections would be held in vacancies created by the disqualification of Awami League elected representatives who had committed what he described as criminal acts or indulged in anti-social activities. The Daily Telegraph notes that President Yahya Khan's constitutional plans after the upheavals in East Pakistan are accompanied by grim reports of the situation in that crucified province. It is now several weeks since he held out the prospect of finding enough representative East Pakistanis to set up a provincial administration and to cooperate somehow with West Pakistan politicians to form a civilian national Government. He must have been deplorably out of touch with what was and had been, going on. He now sets more modest and distant goals. President Yahya, dropping the Constituent Assembly, has set up a committee to draft a constitution for a return to civilian rule in four months or so but longer if the internal and external situation is not propitious. There seems little hope that either will be. Evidently East Pakistan is to be treated as a kind of colony, says the Daily Telegraph, adding that how much self-rule it gets will depend on how it accepts its lot. In the Time's view. President Yahya Khan's proposals are well meaning but will hardly meet the emotional needs of East Pakistan. For three months the province has been subjected to military brutality enough to carry resentment far beyond the ranks of the politically conscious. What is necessary in face of this despite and hatred, asks the Times, and suggests some magnanimity rather than the carefully hedged promises made yesterday-something more generous in spirit than a constitution drafted by an expert committee. No plan for the future will succeed unless it can hope to win over a large body of Bengali opinion. What is needed now in the Time's view is surely some measure of good will towards the Bengali population of East Pakistan that will encourage them to think that peaceful compromise might be possible instead of clinging to hopes of guerilla warfare with all the added suffering that more fighting would bring. They will not be inspired by a statement, however well intentioned, that reads as if it had been drafted by an adjutant for battalion orders. The most sharply worded criticism comes from the Guardian which begins by remarking that General Yahya Khan's nightmarish dream world shows no signs of crumbling. His faith in what his aides tell him is touching, but tragically pathetic. He has no real plans now. The proposals he unveiled for a return to democratic government are a shame in the Guardian's judgment. Sheikh Mujibur Rahman remains, in the Guardian's view, just possibly, the one man who can persuade the five million who fled to return; and-equally vital-those Bengalis who remained not to wallow in communal strife. Mujib, in as the Guardian's Pakistan's last chance of a little peace. A fourth editorial appears in the Scotsman which says President Yahya Khan may have a firm grip on Pakistan in consequence of military ruthlessness but his grip on