Dacca, Dec. 17. The Bangladesh Government has begun work on a new constitution and new election to be held in the middle of next year. The “war cabinet” of five, headed by Acting President Syed Nazrul Islam has set to work as a post-war government of reconstruction. The predominant mood, Bangladesh becomes a reality, is that a new era is beginning for 75 million Bengalis who have already lost an estimated million dead to achieve the independence of their country. Sources close to the Bangladesh Government say that their immediate problems are:

1. The release from detention in Pakistan of the father of the nation, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

2. The repatriation of some 400,000 Bengalis in Pakistan in exchange for about two million Pakistanis and non-Bengalis in Bangladesh.

3. The cases of hundreds who willingly or under duress have collaborated with the Pakistan army in the past eight months. The Government will examine each case individually before any action is taken.

The Government proposes to bargain for the release of Sheikh Mujib in exchange for the Pakistan Army officers and civilians who have surrendered. The war has left damage and destruction everywhere and the ministers are in the unenviable position of beginning almost entirely from scratch. Except for the aid and loans so far promised by India, almost everything from rice to consumer goods, to iron and steel, will have to be imported.

A skeleton central administration was set up in Dacca today with about a dozen experienced civil servants under Mr Ruhul Quddus. He was accused of treason, with Sheikh Mujib, in the “Agartala conspiracy" in 1968 and was arrested with him. After his release he was barred from rejoining the civil service. During the past eight months the collective leadership of the government in exile has worked well, and the Acting Prime Minister, Mr. Tajuddin Ahmed, has emerged with the reputation of a man who kept the various factions together. There are now demands for a national coalition government. If the demand is pressed and is not conceded by the Awami League, the two factions headed by the pro-Moscow Mr. Muzaffar Ahmed, and the other left-wing party of Maulana Bhashani, will set themselves up as a responsible non-parliamentary opposition.