and even the two federating States would be entitled to raise their “Territorial's” and make their own agreements on foreign trade.
In March 1966 while visiting East Pakistan President Ayub Khan said that he considered Sheikh's Six Points as a threat of secession and warned he would rather fight a civil war like they did in the United States then concede. Sheikh was immediately arrested and the majority of the foreign press ignored the event. To Bengalis his arrest-the fourth of his career-confined him as a martyr. In the notorious Agartala Conspiracy Case which was engineered by President Ayub Khan and the ruling clique, Mujib was brought to trial with 35 others. It was alleged against them that led by the Sheikh, they had conspired with Indian accomplices to organise a mutiny to over-throw the Ayub regime. There was not a grain of truth in this allegation and for want of evidence the trial ended inconclusively in Mujib's favor and he with others were freed except one who was shot in prison. The object of this trial was to discredit Mujib and his leadership by creating a misapprehension among the East Bengalis that what he was really demanding was not autonomy but virtual secession. However, the Pakistan Government's scheme proved to be a dismal failure. President Ayub stood thoroughly discredited.
This trial reveals two very important points about the psychology of West Pakistan's ruling class, one-they have no political education to run a country, fundamentally unscrupulous and capable of doing anything which is inconceivable in a modern society; secondly, they always held Bengalis in suspicion and any popular outburst in tile East was thwarted as being the instigation of communists or of India.
The Present Crisis
In the recent election in December last tile Sheikh and his Party, the Awami League, won 167 seats of the 169 in the National Constitutional Assembly which were allotted to East Pakistan. His party got a clear majority-in fact absolute majorityin a Chamber of 313. The newly elected National Assembly of Pakistan Was supposed to meet on 3” March. The West Pakistani leader Zulfikar Ali Bhutto with his 83 members demanded that control of trade and aid should remain in the hands of the Central Government. When Sheikh Mujib refused to compromise on these instruments of past economic exploitation. Bhutto refused to attend the Assembly and with the advice of Bhutto and other military hawks President Yahya Khan postponed the Assembly indefinitely.
Bhutto won the election on the slogan “Thousand Years' War Against India". The Sheikh won the election on his famous Six Points. This means autonomy for Bengalis while West Pakistan, would, have the portfolios of defense, foreign and finance affairs. It has been reported that “Groups of Baluchis, Pathans and Sindhis marched through the streets of Karachi on 4th March in support of East Pakistan.” That leaves only the province of West Punjab whose people control all the high positions in Pakistan and there is the rub. To Mr. Bhutto and the West Punjabis Pakistan becomes meaningless without “Thousand Years War Against India” and without foreign exchange earned by 78 millions Bengalis, West Punjab can wage no war.
The Kashmir dispute and the Regional Corporation and Development a pact between Turkey, Iran and Pakistan-have furthered the economic prosperity of the Western region
