DETROIT: Leader of Pakistan’s delegation to the United Nations General Assembly, Raja Tridev Roy, said … that the threatened trials of Pakistan Army Officers in Bangladesh would wreck the process of normalisation in the Sub-continent. Addressing a large gathering of judges and lawyers at a luncheon hosted by Mr Abdus Salam Sheikh, a leading attorney … he expressed the hope that better sense would prevail on the Dacca authorities.

In his 45-minute address, Raja Tridev Roy dw­­e­­­lt on the genesis of Pakistan, its dismemberm­ent last year and then focused the lawyers’ at­­t­e­n­­­tion on the “one-sided” trials taking place in Ba­­n­gladesh of pro-Pakistan elements and the plans for similar action against Pakistan Army Officers.

He told them of the case of Dr. A.M. Malik, 75-year-old former Governor of East Pakistan, who was sentenced for life … without providing him legal defence. The only fault of Dr. Malik, he said, was that he carried out the orders of the Federal Government. As for the Pakistan Army Officers, he said they could not be tried for war crimes because they were operating within the State of Pakistan. If some of them were guilty of some excess, the President of Pakistan had offered to try them in Pakistan with proceedings overseen by international observers… . — News agencies

Published in Dawn, December 17th, 2022