RAWALPINDI: Maj-Gen. A.M. Yahya Khan has been designated Commander-in-Chief of Pakistan Army to succeed Gen. Mohammad Musa in October this year. Maj-Gen. Yahya Khan has been promoted to the rank of Lieutenant General and appointed Deputy Commander-in-Chief with immediate effect, it was officially announced today [March 29].

Gen. Yahya was in 1958 appointed Chairman of the commission which recommended shifting of capital from Karachi to Potwar plateau. He was later appointed Chairman of the Capital Development Authority and was thus associated with the initial planning and layout of Islamabad, the new Capital.

[Meanwhile, as reported by agencies from Moscow,] Mr Leonid Brezhnev, First Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party, suggested today that Soviet and Chinese leaders meet in Moscow or Peking “to examine again jointly” the differences between them “so as to find a way to overcome them on the basis of the principles of Marxism-Leninism”.

Mr Brezhnev said the Soviet leaders were ready for such a meeting “at any moment”.

He said the Kremlin’s relations with China and Albania were unsatisfactory and offered peace talks to end the deep ideological conflict in the Communist movement.

“We want friendship and co-operation with People’s China and People’s Albania,” he declared. “We are ready at any moment to discuss the differences between us,” he told 5,000 Soviet Communist Party delegates and Communist leaders from more than 70 nations at the Soviet Communist Party Congress which opened here today.

All the Communist nations except China and Albania are represented at the Congress, the first since 1961.

Mr Brezhnev hit out at “aggressive American imperialism” today and said Soviet Union’s policy is aimed mainly at strengthening the unity of the Communist bloc.

Mr Brezhnev said the international influence of Communism was growing, while capitalism was in a state of general crisis.

Published in Dawn, March 30th, 2016