Islamabad: "A legion of wishy-washy elements" was the Pakistan Times' description of the team sent to do battle at this session of the United Nations. The New Times found it "weak and far from capable of representing the country and its mood today". These were serious charges, given the job Pakistan's emissaries will face on the East river.

Nobody here expects India to refrain from making "Bangla Desh" a major issue. Yet the government's choice of representatives was hardly calculated to ensure successful defence of Islamabad's grim military action against Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's Awami League and the Bengalis in general. The foreign secretary, Sultan Khan, is not going and, apart from a few professional diplomats, the delegation consisted of not very well- known legal figures.

East Pakistan will be represented by the delegation's leader Mahmud Ali, a Bengali from Sylhet who is vice president of the Pakistan Democratic Party - essentially a splinter group which was heavily defeated by the Awami League - and who lacks diplomatic experience. He had a foretaste however of what his team was likely to face during a recent world trip on which he was sent by President Yahya Khan to counter India's activities on behalf of Bangla Desh.

During this visit, Mahmud Ali claimed he had felt people in foreign countries had now started "to think about another side of the picture". Stressing this in an interview with APP (Associated Press of Pakistan) on the eve of the New York session, he added that the prime object of his delegation would be "to project the full truth about Pakistan". This would help create a peaceful atmosphere in the region and probably convince the world community that a strong and united Pakistan was the surest guarantee for peace in Southeast Asia. But, obviously uncertain of his persuasive powers, he concluded: "We will react violently if India or any other country makes any move tantamounting to interference in the internal affairs of Pakistan."

Government circles appeared to bank mainly on the support of Moslem countries, particularly those of the Arab world, with which Pakistan has frequently demonstrated its solidarity in times of crisis. From the United States they expected a neutral or at least reserved attitude towards the "Bangla Desh" issue. But Islamabad had little hope over Britain's attitude, and was apprehensive of Russia's possible stance - although Sultan Khan had only recently returned from a visit to Moscow with Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko's assurance Russia was "deeply interested in the unity and integrity of Pakistan".