PESHAWAR: President Zulfikar Ali Bhutto here today [Jan 15] declared that Pakistan would not be pressurised to sign a peace treaty or a no-war pact with India neither would it accept any preconditions for talks on outstanding issues. The President also warned India against using the prisoners-of-war as hostages and said this would solve no issue.

… [T]he President asked India to reciprocate in the same as he had taken steps without any conditions. He listed the unconditional release of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and open offer of repatriating Bengali armed forces and civilian personnel from West Pakistan as these steps. … — Staff correspondent

[Meanwhile, as reported by the newspaper’s staff correspondent from Lahore] The Minister for Law and Parliamentary Affairs, Mr Mahmud Ali Kasuri, … ruled out the promulgation of an interim Constitution on the plea that it would amount to giving a Constitution by one man. He was of the opinion that the country had very unpleasant experience of one-man constitutions and therefore, it would not be proper to repeat it.

Addressing a Press conference, Mr Kasuri said he was busy drafting the chapter on fundamental rights to be incorporated in the future Constitution.

Published in Dawn, January 16th, 2022