LAHORE: Mr Z.A. Bhutto, Chairman of the Pakistan People’s Party, today [July 20] declared that his party was willing to wait for four months — a period stipulated in President Yahya’s broadcast for transfer of power — but would never accept any further procrastination in this respect…. Talking informally to newsmen, Mr Bhutto said when he demanded immediate transfer of power to the elected representatives, he did not use the term immediate in its literal sense — he meant that his party wanted only to prevent procrastination. — Staff correspondent

[Meanwhile, as reported by agencies in Rawalpindi,] President Yahya Khan has received a letter from the World Bank President, Mr Robert McNamara, regretting the unauthorised publication in the American Press of a report on the East Pakistan situation…. Prepared by a World Bank team, after a visit to Pakistan in June, for the … 11-nation Aid-to-Pakistan Consortium, the World Bank chief reportedly found it biased and provocative and placed restriction on its circulation. … [T]he British Broadcasting Corporation says: “The report coincides with ‘bitter’ arguments within the United States Government and the Congress about American military and economic aid to Pakistan which continues.”

Published in Dawn, July 21st, 2021