NEW DELHI: The Press Trust of India (PTI), reporting from Moscow today [May 4], said two Soviet Ilyushin-18 aircraft were ready to take off from Tashkent to evacuate Indian diplomatic personnel from the East Pakistan capital of Dacca.

… [T]he aircraft would fly on from New Delhi to Dacca at a time when Indian personnel were flown from Dacca. Diplomatic personnel from the Pakistan Deputy High Commission in Calcutta would be airlifted by an Iranian Airlines plane to Karachi. The Moscow report said the Soviet planes had been on alert from the middle of last week, but Pakistani agreement to the flight came only last night. — Agencies

[Meanwhile, as reported by a correspondent in Lahore,] Mr Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, Chairman of the People’s Party, today [May 4] suggested that power should be transferred on the basis of an interim constitution before the presentation of the next budget, so that the representatives of the people could be associated with the formulation of fiscal policy for the next year.

… Mr Bhutto … however, made it clear that the regime was the best judge to decide the timing of the transfer of power...

Making a pointed reference to the situation in East Pakistan and the overall economic deterioration in the country, Mr Bhutto warned that the situation would get out of hand if there was an inordinate delay in the transfer of power.

Published in Dawn, May 5th, 2021