RAWALPINDI: President Yahya Khan today [Nov 28] announced that general elections in the country will be held on Oct 5, 1970, on the basis of ‘one man, one vote’.

He also declared that One Unit will be dissolved and separate provinces will come into being.

The two Wings will be given maximum autonomy with full control over their economic resources, he said, and added that these matters could not have been left to become election issues.

Announcing his decisions in a nationwide broadcast this evening, his third since assumption of power on March 26 this year, the President said that the National Assembly elected in the October 1970 elections will have to complete its constitution-making within 120 days of its first meeting, failing which it will stand dissolved and the nation will have to go to the polls again.

The President said full political activity will be restored in the country from Jan 1, 1970, and Martial Law will withdraw into the background, though it will remain in force until the legal transfer of power to the elected representatives of the people.

The President said his decision to dismember the 13-year-old One Unit of West Pakistan and revert to separate provinces was based on the popular wish.

He said that the people of both East and West Pakistan were “almost unanimous” in demanding the break-up of One Unit. — Agency

Published in Dawn, November 29th, 2019