Unless something is done quickly to defuse the rapidly deteriorating situation in Pakistan, Asia and the world will be faced with a problem of unimaginable dimensions.

The relations between the eastern and western provinces are growing worse every hour, and the country is poised on the brink of a violent secession which would involve 73 million Bengalis and 60 million West Pakistanis, President Yahya Khan's Iast-minute attempt to bring together the obdurate leaders of the eastern and western provinces, Shaikh Mujibur Rahman and Mr. Z. A. Bhutto, has failed.

Mr. Bhutto, leader of the People's Party in West Pakistan, who precipitated the present crisis by threatening to boycott the proceedings of the Constituent Assembly, in which the Bengalis have a majority, has accepted the President's invitation to a round-table conference on March 10.

However. Shaikh Mujibur. the East Pakistan leader, who has accused Mr. Bhutto and the western wing of hatching a conspiracy to postpone the assembly, has rejected the invitation to a conference in harsh terms. The President decided on Monday to postpone the assembly, 48 hours before it was due to convene in Dacca.

In his reply to President Yahya Khan. the Bengali leader said that the invitation came as a cruel joke when the Army was shooting down unarmed Bengalis in the streets of Dacca. " With the military build-up continuing, with the harsh language of weapons still ringing in our ears, the invitation to such a conference is in effect being made at gunpoint he added.

The Shaikh also accused West Pakistan of secession. He pointed out that East Pakistan was in a majority, and a majority never secedes from a minority. The Bengali leader also said that the eastern province had been willing to participate in the framing of a constitution at the Constituent Assembly, but it was Mr. Bhutto, representing a smaller section of the country, who had refused to cooperate.

In another apparent reference to Mr. Bhutto, a former Pakistan Foreign Minister, Shaikh Mujibur added '' If you do not want to frame one constitution, let us frame our own constitution and then you frame your own. Then let us see whether we can live together as brothers. For we are ready to make further sacrifices and give more blood. You cannot suppress the Bengalis by killing 70 million of us."

The general strike in East Pakistan continued to paralyse the province for the third day today. In spite of the Army's decision to lift the curfew temporarily, the situation in Dacca, Chittagong and Rangpur remained tense.

Numerous processions of students marched through the streets of Dacca today shouting " Free Bengal " not long after the only other Bengali political leader invited to the round-table conference, Mr. Nurual Amin. had rejected the President's offer. Mr. Amin's stand has united the eastern province in its demand for the immediate summoning of the Constituent Assembly and brings negotiations between the two provinces to a deadlock.

Meanwhile, tempers are beginning to flare in the streets of Dacca and it is only a matter of time before a clash occurs between the Bengali crowds and patrolling troops from the Punjab, thus putting the last nail in the coffin so far as relations between the eastern and western wings are concerned.

Reports describing the violence in Dacca are vague, but spokesmen for Shaikh Mujibur's Awami League has claimed that 50 people have been killed in recent clashes with the police. It is expected that President Yahya Khan will make yet another attempt to ease the situation in the next 48 hours, but there are few options open to him. If he announces another date for the opening of the assembly, it is doubtful whether Mr. Bhutto would attend.

The West Pakistan leader has already indicated that he would only enter the assembly on his own terms and was not prepared to frame a constitution according to the dictates of the overwhelming Bengali majority. Mr. Bhutto has also promised to call a general strike in West Pakistan if the assembly meets without his consent, as well as (Continued on page 5, col. 3) threatening anyone " be he in black, white or khaki " who attends the assembly. session in Dacca.

The President's decision to postpone the assembly, which was due to meet on Wednesday, has greatly disillusioned the Bengalis, and under the new set of conditions it is equally doubtful whether Shaikh Mujibur would agree to enter the assembly hail, even if a new date is announced.

It appears that the only hope left for the military regime would be to hand over the authority to the constitution-making process to the Chief Justice, an East Pakistani, while the Army would continue to administer the day-to-day needs of the country.

In any event, the time for reconciliation is almost past. The leaders are already making subtle moves to shift the responsibility for the final split on to someone else's shoulders. This process began soon after the elections last December when Mr. Bhutto had agreed to participate in the Constituent Assembly. At the time he said that he would enter the Assembly Hall, but he was aware that Sheikh Mujibur Rahman would force his own constitution through with his big majority.

Mr. Bhutto told me at that time: "The onus and responsibility would then lie between Shaikh Mujibur Rahman and the President. I would be out of it and the President would then be confronted with a document which was totally unacceptable to half of the country. I doubt whether he would sign it."

In other words, Mr. Bhutto would have emerged as the hero of West Pakistan and the blame for the split would have been laid on the President.

In the meantime, however. Mr. Bhutto had learnt that the East Pakistan leader had planned a counter-move and was planning to declare that the assembly was a sovereign body, which would have meant that the President would have lost his power to veto or ratify the documents. This would leave the blame being shared between the two political leaders.

This was probably the most important reason behind Mr. Bhutto's sudden decision to boycott the assembly. In doing so, he again extricated himself from the proceedings, leaving the conflict to develop between the East Pakistan leader and President Yahya Khan.

Nevertheless, Mr. Bhutto is being blamed for the present crisis. With the exception of the Punjabi press, most of the leading newspapers to both wings of the country have attacked him and condemned him for his decision to boycott the assembly.

In a leading article this morning, The Morning News pointed out that the differences between the two provinces should have been resolved in the assembly, but Mr Bhutto's boycott decision had left the President with no other choice but to postpone the session.

Meanwhile, Pakistanis in the western wing have been confronted with a sharp dilemma. They are now painfully aware that they will have to give up their monopoly of power and reconcile themselves to Bengali rule if the country, is to remain together. This would call for a tremendous sacrifice in the Punjab, because Bengali rule would almost certainly mean a rapprochement with India and the shelving of the Kashmir issue. As painful as this decision may be, the West Pakistanis are also aware that their own province might disintegrate into a number of feuding Muslim states if the eastern province were to break away. Without the counterbalance of the large eastern province, the minority provinces of Baluchistan. North-West Frontier, and Sind would feel exposed to Punjabi dominations and might follow East Pakistan in a struggle for autonomy.

The first hint of such a reaction came last night when groups of Baluchis, Pathans and Sindhis marched through the streets of Karachi in support of East Pakistan. Police were later called to quell riots when processions clashed with Mr. Bhutto's supporters and other advocates of a strong central government. These clashes gave rise to fears that another regional conflict might engulf West Pakistan.