Washington Star/Evening Star

President Mohammad Yahya Khan asked the United States to sell Pakistan seven B57 reconnaissance-bombers on June 9, three months after the government imposed a ban on all military sales to his country, diplomatic sources said yesterday.

Even though Pakistan is near bankruptcy because of the civil war that erupted in East Pakistan in late March, Yahya apparently is willing to pay the $1,250,000 that each of the sophisticated jet planes would cost, or a total of $8,750,000.

State Department officials, acknowledging Yahya's request, said it was being held in abeyance while the United States reviews its entire military assistance program to Pakistan.

The request heightened the anger of Indian diplomats already smarting from disclosures that military equipment was shipped from New York aboard Pakistani vessels in late June in violation of the sales ban.

Both incidents are considered certain to be discussed when Dr. Henry A, Kissinger, President Nixon's national security affairs adviser, visits India and Pakistan next week on his way to Paris from Saigon.

Pentagon officials would not comment on the Pakistani request.

The B57, which was manufactured until 1959, can be used as a tactical bomber with a 6-ton bomb load or for reconnaissance at altitudes of 50,000 feet.

There was concern here that the jet request indicates that Pakistani officials do not take seriously the ban imposed by the United States in early April, retroactive to March 25, the date the East Pakistan civil war began.

State Department officials acknowledged June 23 that the embargo had been violated. It was understood that about $2,000 worth of aircraft engine parts and accessories had been shipped on a Pakistani vessel from New York despite revocation of the sale license.

The department indicated it was a case of a Defense Department subcontractor making a delivery agreed upon before the ban went into effect.

Some officials believe Yahya has interpreted such shipments as a signal of tacit endorsement by the Nixon administration of his stern measures against East Pakistan.

There also was concern here that Pakistan envoys are misinforming Yahya about the real extent of international criticism of his methods of putting down the civil strife. This, they fear, could undermine world pressure on Yahya to restore civil government in East Pakistan.