DACCA: Twenty camps are being set up all along the East Pakistan-India borders in accordance with the promise of President Yahya Khan, to facilitate the return of Pakistanis who, misled by Indian propaganda, had crossed over to India. With the restoration of normalcy in East Pakistan, some of them have started returning and telling their tales of the Indian side of the border. … According to these people those who claim to be members of the phantom “government” do not carry any conviction of purpose with them, let alone formulation of policies. ...[M]any of them are not even on speaking terms with each other. Everybody agrees that Mr Tajuddin, Prof. Muzaffar Ahmed and the ‘military high command’ of Col. Usmani are simply unable to reconcile their differences. The military high command despises the politicians sitting in the comfortable rest houses provided by the Indian Government and Prof. Muzaffar is bitter for having been ignored in the power hierarchy. — Agencies

Wali’s resignation

[Meanwhile, as reported by a staff correspondent in Karachi,] The question of the resignation of Khan Abdul Wali Khan from the office of the presidentship of National Awami Party was ... referred to the Central Council by the office-bearers of the West Pakistan provinces. The informal meeting of the provincial office-bearers of NAP ... was of the opinion that only the Central Committee and the National Council of the Party were empowered to either accept or reject the resignation of Mr Wali Khan.

Sikh protest

[Editorial:] The Sikhs in India, and the members of this nationality living in other parts of the world, have staged yet another protest.... It has been led by the Akali Dal — which has alerted the community “to be ready for sacrifices to safeguard the rights of the Sikhs in India”. The proverbial last straw on the camel’s back, in this case, is ostensibly the Indian Government’s ill-advised ordinance appointing a nominated board to manage the Sikhs’ places of worship — Gurdwaras — in Delhi and other places. The redoubtable Akali Chief, Sant Fateh Singh, has bitterly complained that this bypasses the Shromani Gurdwara Probandhak Committee which is the “highest elected body of the Sikhs” and, as such, cannot abdicate its right and responsibility to manage Gurdwaras. The Probandhak Committee has so far been accepted by both India and Pakistan as the relevant authority to deal with … the Sikhs’ holy places. … It has, however, never been a secret that the permanent and brute majority in India’s body politic has consistently shown deep mistrust of the Sikhs.... The latest manifestation of this has come in the unprecedented refusal to permit the Sikhs in India to attend the three-day celebration of the death anniversary of Guru Arjan Devji at Gurdwara Dera Nawab Sahib in Lahore … .

Published in Dawn, May 31st, 2021