From Our Own Correspondent Delhi, March 1

President Yahya Khan decided today to postpone the first meeting of Pakistan's newly elected Constituent Assembly almost 48 hours before it was due to convene in Dacca. The decision was inevitable and it was the only course open to the President. It was inevitable because it has. for the time being, averted a direct confrontation between the two distant provinces of Pakistan and the break-up of the country.

There can be no doubt that Pakistan would have been plunged directly into the convulsion of secession if the Assembly had convened on Wednesday.

The political giant of West Pakistan, Mr. Z, A. Bhutto, had already decided to boycott it and, apart from a few West Pakistan delegates, the Assembly would have been almost entirely representative of East Bengal. Any constitution it drew up would have been unacceptable to half the country.

President Yahya probably arrived at his wise decision today with the knowledge that he, as President, could not have ratified any constitution which was not mutually acceptable to the two geographical wings of the country.

If he had refused to accept a constitution, technically drawn up by a majority of the country's elected representatives, albeit that they represent Bengal thinking, the East Pakistan leader, Shaikh Mujibur Rahman. would have had no option but to break off all further connexions with the western wing. But even though the President's course of action would appear obvious, his decision was in fact a gamble. If Shaikh Mujibur had reacted differently today the country might have been thrown into a separatist crisis overnight. Under pressure from the hard liners in his own party, the Shaikh might easily have rejected the President's decision, declared the Constituent Assembly a sovereign body, and convened an assembly of Bengal representatives.

At it is, the shaikh has, instead. called for a hartal, a general strike of protest, and Pakistan has been given a short but tense breathing space.

But it is only a respite because President Yahya's decision has not solved the impasse.

The two points of friction remain. The Bengalis, who have suffered economically because of the western wing's dispute over Kashmir with India, are no longer prepared to foot the huge defence budget prepared by the western wing. They are also no longer willing to sacrifice their lucrative trade links with India because of the western province's anti-Indian policies.

They want constitutional guarantees under which Bengal will control its own fiscal and foreign trade policy. The shaikh's programme calls for autonomy which would leave the central Government with authority over only defence, foreign affairs and perhaps currency.

Dacca, March 1.— The police threw tear gas grenades at militant demonstrators here today in incidents that followed President Yahya's postponement of the Assembly session.—Agence France Presse.