KARACHI, Pakistan, Jan. 3— Sheik Mujibur Rahman, leader of the Awami League, which won more than half the seats in last month's National Assembly elections, affirmed to day his campaign pledge to seek full regional autonomy for East Pakistan under the new constitution that the Assembly will draft.
Addressing a rally — estimated at two million people — at the race course in Dacca, the Sheik said that the people of East Pakistan had given a “clear verdict” in favor of the Awami League's six‐point pro gram in the elections. The league's members elected to the National Assembly were all from East Pakistan.
The speech today was Sheik Mujib's first public pronouncement on the constitutional issue since his party's victory Dec. 7 in Pakistan's first general elections on the basis of direct universal adult sufferage.
120 Days to Act
The National Assembly, which is expected to meet some time next month, will have to frame a new constitution within 120 days of its first sitting or face dissolution.
At the rally victorious Awami League candidates for the National Assembly and the East Pakistan Provincial Assembly, where the Awami League has an overwhelming majority, took oaths of “full allegiance and loyalty” to the party's program.
Sheik Mujib said that although his party would be a majority in the Assembly it would not draft the new constitution by itself. The party will “certainly seek the cooperation of the elected representatives of West Pakistan, without compromising on principle,” he said.
He did not say whether his, party would cooperate with the Pakistan People's party, which won 82 of the 138 National Assembly seats in West Pakistan, or with the various splinter groups that won Assembly seats. The largest of these groups has nine representatives in the Assembly.
Stronger Government
Although Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, a former Foreign Minister who ;heads the People's party, favors considerable regional autonomy for East Pakistan, it is known that he advocates a much stronger central Government than the one sought by the Awami League. The two parts of Pakistan are separated by 1,000 miles of Indian territory.
Sheik Mujib and Mr. Bhutto also differ on whether there should be a unicameral legislature. Mr. Bhutto advocates two‐house Parliament, with people's representatives sitting in the lower house and Pakistan's five provinces equally represented in the upper house. The provinces are East Pakistan, Sind, the Punjab, the Northwest Frontier and Baluchistan — the last four making up West Pakistan.
Most of the West Pakistani splinter groups are opposed to the Awami League program. In statements made in the last few days, Mr. Bhutto has said that he would be prepared to negotiate with Sheik Mujib to make” certain adjustments here land there” in drafting a constitution. The two men are expected to meet in East Pakistan later this month.
When the National Assembly drafts a constitution it will not automatically become law until President Agha Mohammed Yahya Khan “authenticates” it. The President has made it clear that although he favors “maximum provincial autonomy,” he will insist that the “independence and territorial integrity” of the nation are preserved.