To THE EDITOR:

Your editorials of June 17 and 30, advocating that aid for Pakistan be withheld until there is a genuine political accommodation with democratically elected leaders, is based on some assumptions that need closer examination.

President Yahya's June 28 plan for the transfer of power does not include from the National Assembly members elected on the Awami League ticket. They are members in their individual capacities and can still be in absolute majority if they should decide to form a new group to work for maximum provincial autonomy within a single federal state.

In stressing the Awami League's presence in the National Assembly you have ignored the fact that its democratically elected leaders had by March 26 (when it was banned) gone far beyond its program approved by the East Pakistan electorate.

Their electoral mandate was for provincial autonomy and not secession. Their opposition to the process of transfer of power, starting with the meeting of the National Assembly, was the breaking point in the Dacca negotiations.

President Yahya's offer to withdraw martial law the moment the National Assembly met and gave some form of validity to a central government was turned down. The Awami League extremists seemed not to want even a weak center which would in any way symbolize Pakistan's unity.

Had the National Assembly convened, its members, at the opening session, would have had to take the oath of allegiance to Pakistan. This obviously did not fit in with the post-election "mandate" drawn up by the extremists who, with third-degree methods, at this stage dominated the moderates.

You have charged that the Pakistan Government is "at war" with a large part of its population. But the action that the Pakistan Army was forced to take to put down a mutiny and an armed attempt at the dismemberment of Pakistan cannot in this context be described as the sort of war implied in your editorial.

Your position tends also to ignore the needs of a larger part of Pakistan's population and at the same time encourage the secessionists who are now operating from India and are not interested in a political settlement on the basis of one Pakistan.

And, finally, would Pakistani displaced persons in India be encouraged to return to their homes if development aid to Pakistan is delayed or denied? With the restoration of law and order, the assurance of continuing expenditure on rehabilitation and development will be an added incentive for all of them to respond to President Yahya's appeal and cover of general amnesty to return home.

HAMID JALAL
Press Counselor, Pakistan Mission to the United Nations.
NEW YORK, June 30, 1971.