বাংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্রঃ পঞ্চদশ খণ্ড
intentions to engage in serious negotiations, Sheikh Mujib proposed that a committee of experts be set up, composed of experts be set up, composed of experts to be nominated by each side, to work out the implications of granting regional autonomy on the basis of the Six-Pointe formula. His team of experts was fully prepared to enter into such negotiation. In addition to the experts who had accompanied him, Dr. Nuzrul Islam, then Director of the Pakistan Institute of development Economics, had also been alerted and stood in readiness to join the team, should negotiations have to be conducted in a committee of express.
Upon arrival in Rawalpindi I found that Manzoor Quader was also in Rawalpindi. He contacted me and informed that he had been asked by Ayub to be available in Rawalpindi, as an adviser. When told about Sheikh Mujib's proposal and hopped that such a committee would be set up and in that event he expected to be on such a committee from the government side.
As events were to show, the Punjabi reaction was to close their ranks and to refuse even to discuss the Six-Point formula. It is known that the Punjabi opposition leaders were constantly in meeting with Ayub and his Law Minister Zafar. Indeed, even before Ayub himself raised objection to the Six-Point formula, Chaudhri Mahammad Ali, in his opening statement, stated that the Democratic Action committee’s demand for a federal parliamentary government did not envisage change in the parity basis of representation or dismemberment of one unit. He also contended that the Round Table Conference was not competent to go into this questions. .
Dr. Nurul Huda, then provincial Finance Minister, was member of Ayub's team. He, however, maintained contact with the Awami League advisers and provided some “inside reports" on what was going on in the Government camp. According to him, there was considerable division of opinion between the 'hawks', who did not wish to concede any-thing on the demand for autonomy or dismemberment of One Unit and opposed even the formation of a committee of experts, while the 'doves' favored the formation of a committee of experts to discuss regional autonomy. Zafar and Admiral A. R. Khan are named as the 'hawks', with Doha supporting them. It was reported that Manzoor Quader, however, was supporting the formation of a committee, as was Dr. Huda himself.
I was also maintaining contact with Manzoor Quader. When I met him on March 11, Manzoor Quader reported that he was supporting the formation of a committee of experts. He then mentioned that he had been examining the six-point formula and found difficulty with the point which called for two separate currencies. when told that in the statement presented at the conference, an alternative proposal for a single currency within a federal reserve system has been put forward, he expressed surprise, since in the transcript which he had received from the cabinet division this alternative proposal had not been mentioned. I informed him that Sheikh Mujib had made a written statement and copies had been distributed and therefore was no scope for was no scope for such a major error in the transcription. He expressed dismay, and requested that a copy of Sheikh Mujib's statement may be given to him. This was obtained and hundred over to him. The reports of March 11 were that, on balance the government side was said to be leaning in favour of
