KARACHI, Pakistan, Sept. 11 — While East Pakistan's most popular politician, Sheik Mujibur Rahman, is standing trial for treason, West Pakistan's most popular politician, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, is restively awaiting army permission to take his place in the Pakistani leadership.

Mr. Bhutto, who won the strongest support of any West Pakistani politician in last December's election, has been delivering morale ‐ building speeches around the country while militants of his left‐wing Pakistan People's party press increasingly to have him installed as a Government leader.

Mr. Bhutto tells his supporters that his conferences with President Agha Mohammad Yahya Khan are making progress and that the party members will have to wait only a little longer.

In theory, democracy is just around the corner, for the first time in Pakistan's 24 years of independence. But in practice enormous obstacles remain.

Last Dec. 7, Pakistani voters elected a 313‐seat National Assembly, the majority bloc of which was allocated to the most populous wing of the country, East Pakistan.
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Bengali's Swept Elections

The vote in East Pakistan was a virtual sweep for the Bengali separatist Awami League headed by Sheik Mujib, The league won 167 seats.

In West Pakistan there was more of a contest with minor parties, but Mr. Bhutto's Pakistan People's party won 80 seats —a clear majority among the parties of the west.

The Government was not able to devise a constitutional formula for a new national government. If all parties had agreed, Sheik Mujib would have been named Premier of all Pakistan (as head of the party with the most assembly seats) and various other ministry posts would have been divided among the parties.

But negotiations between the military Government and the various parties broke down in February and March, and on March 25 the army occupied East Pakistan, banning the Awami League and jailing Sheik Mujib. Sheik Mujib wanted to govern an autonomous East Bengal and wanted no part of West Pakistan.

No Faith in Army

Mr. Bhutto insists that Pakistan's current economic and political crisis can only be solved by political leadership, not by army officers.

While he is reticent about being quoted directly by the press, Mr. Bhutto has told friends and colleagues that he is not interested in being President or Premier. General Yahya might well remain as President with an East Pakistani as Premier, he says.

But he prefers not to talk about possible solutions for East Pakistan.

“It may seem strange,” he said, “but the Government does not keep me informed about East Pakistan. One thing certain is that civilian rule for the country is vital.”

Mr. Bhutto presumably has support in West Pakistan to form a government but in East Pakistan he has practically no political base. Furthermore, chances of democratic government in war‐torn East Pakistan soon seem remote.

On top of his problems with the military, Mr. Bhutto faces the possibility of having to share what power may be granted him in West Pakistan with various other political parties, notably the three competing fragments of the Moslem League.

The Moslem League was founded by the “father of Pakistan,” Mohammad Ali Jinnah, and was the dominant political party in the early years. Now it is fragmented and weak, although still popular with powerful conservative groups and the army.

Meanwhile, Mr. Bhutto denounces the “imperialist‐capitalist class” that he says rules Pakistan and threatens that if he cannot reach agreement with President Yahya soon he will announce publicly what his differences with the President are.

To some political followers such a mild threat hardly seems likely to move the army. On the other hand, the trial of Sheik Mujib demonstrates what can happen to politicians in Pakistan who differ too strongly with the army.

“I am walking on eggs,” Mr. Bhutto said recently.