BAN OFF, YET AWAMI LEAGUE IS ILLEGAL

 

Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's outlawed Awami League remains illegal despite the lifting of the six-month old ban on political activity in Pakistan from today (October 10).

 

In the general elections last December, the Awami League won a landslide victory with 160 seats in the National Assembly on a six-point platform of  maximum autonomy for the east. The Sheikh sought to leave only defence and foreign affairs in the hands of the Central Government.

 

Following the ban on the Awami League, the biggest single faction in the Assembly became the People's Party of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.

 

(Reuter despatch datelined Rawalpindi-October 10, 1971)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Source: Bangladesh Documents, vol – II, p. 48