LAHORE: President Zulfikar Ali Bhutto said here … that Pakistan stood for peace and was prepared for a dialogue with India to live peacefully. But this dialogue must be held on the principle on which Pakistan was created. Pakistan’s integrity is not negotiable and there could be no surrender on this, he declared. The President was addressing … students, teachers and intellectuals in the auditorium of Punjab University’s new campus.

The President was in his shirt sleeves, having flown in direct by helicopter from the front in the Fazilka sector. Mr. Bhutto said his nation would allow him to have a dialogue with India because he was … their representative and they believed that he would not betray them. The people know that he would not give in even the face of the highest odds and was unlike former President Ayub Khan, who trembled in his shoes when Soviet Premier Kosygin thumped the table at Tashkent, he said. … The President said he still could not understand the cause of surrender in East Pakistan… . He pledged … that the interests of the country were dear to him that he would prefer getting a bullet to sacrificing national interests. — News agencies

Published in Dawn, December 31st, 2021