KARACHI, Pakistan, June 4 —The Government of Pakistan appears to be trying to bring some former leading members of the outlawed Awami League of East Pakistan back into the national fold.
Jang, the nation's largest newspaper, reported today that moves were under way to form a new party that would include these members but would be opposed to separatism.
The Government appears to be focusing its efforts on the League's bloc of representatives elected last December to the National Assembly, which was to have met March 3 to begin drafting a constitution to return Pakistan to civilian rule.
The Awami League, which had campaigned for regional autonomy, would have dominated that assembly, since it had won 167 of its 313 seats. But President Agha Mohammad Yahya Khan postponed it on March 1, and a series of protest strikes broke out in East Pakistan.
League Banned in March
On March 25, when Pakistan's army began its crack down in the Eastern wing, the Awami League was permanently banned and its leader, Sheik Mujibur Rahman, was jailed on charges of treason.
The newspaper Jang said a former Awami League politician, Begum Akthar Sulaiman, had obtained the signatures of 109 former league representatives in national and provincial assemblies in support of the proposed party.
Mrs. Sulaiman is the daughter of the late Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy, founder of the Awami League. She was quoted today as having said that her father would never have approved of the separatist program adopted by the league under the leadership of Sheik Mujib.
She said the new party is to he headed by Zahir Uddin, a former national education minister.
Mrs. Sulaiman has visited East Pakistan twice in the last two months, and has conferred with President Yahya.
Meanwhile, politicians were speculating that President Yahya would make a speech to the nation in the next few days announcing some of the general outlines of a new constitution.
He is expected to propose a constitution that would prohibit movements tending to fragment the nation and to establish an electoral system in which Pakistanis would vote according to their religion.
The overwhelming majority of Pakistan's population is Moslem and the Moslem faith is the official national religion. How ever, there is a substantial Hindu minority as well as small numbers of Christians, Zoroastrians and Buddhists.
Each religious community would be permitted to elect a certain number of assembly delegates with Moslems in the enormous majority. Last December, Hindus joined Moslems in voting for the separatist policies of the Awami League, and Government officials hope to prevent by law any such cooperation in the future.
It is also understood that in any future government, regard less of the form it takes, the army will continue to guard against unwanted political tendencies.