envisaging full provincial autonomy and this verdict had to be respected. The country’s constitution had to be based on the six-points.
Preparations for the National Assembly session went on in spite of Bhutto’s threat, and the Awami League’s thirty-member committee sat to review the draft constitution prepared by the party on the basis of the sox-point programme. Bhutto continued to press for the postponement of the session and threatened that there would be mass agitation all over the west wing if the National Assembly met without his party’s participation. And suddenly, on March 1, Yahya Khan postponed the session indefinitely, Announcing this decision with what he described as a “heavy heart”, he said that the attitude of the leaders of the two wings of Pakistan as also of India was regrettable. There was no claboration of the cryptic reference to India. Yahya Khan further said that Pakistan faced the gravest crisis and postponement of the session was necessary to find some solution to this crisis. The governors of the West Pakistan provinces were immediately appointed as Martial Law Administrators for their respective areas and the Governor of East Pakistan was replaced by a new Martial Law Administrator.
At a news conference Mujibur Rahman condemned this postponement as a conspiracy and called for a hartal in Dacca on the next day and a general strike throughout the country the day following. He regretted that the President had postponed the National Assembly session without even caring to consult the majority party. Spontaneous protest demonstrations against Yahya’s decision broke out in Dhaka and several thousand people held a rally outside the venue of the news conference.
As the demonstrators cried for retaliation Mujibur counseled patience and said: “We will launch a peaceful constitutional movement.” But violence erupted in Dacca the next day as the Pakistani security forces fired on the people. Curfew was imposed in Dacca and two other towns and the Martial Law Administration issued a decree clamping Press censorship in East Pakistan. On March 3, Mujibur announced the start of a non-violent non-cooperation movement which would continue “until the fundamental democratic rights of the people of East Pakistan are secured.” On the same day Yahya Khan invited the leaders of the two wings to a conference in Dacca on March 10 to thrash out their differences over the formulation of the constitution. As hundreds of people were being killed and injured in street fighting between the troops and angry demonstrators, Mojibur request was not heeded, and many more demonstrators were killed in the next few days. While the military government reinforced troops in East Pakistan by planes and ships carrying more soldiers and equipment, Yahya Khan called the National Assembly session to meet on March 25. He however warned that the army would maintain the “complete and absolute" integrity of Pakistan.
Muibur Rahman declared that his party would consider the question of attending the session only if Yahya Khan immediately lifted the martial law, withdraw troops, restored civilian rule and ordered an inquiry into the recent killing in East Pakistan.
