RAWALPINDI: The Round Table Conference between the Government and the Democratic Action Committee which was scheduled to begin today [Feb 19] was not held, and the pre-conference parleys between the two sides seem to have reached a deadlock. After lengthy sessions today the DAC announced at night it could not say whether the conference would still be held. The Government side also could not say when the conference would begin.

After a three-hour meeting this morning held [after] its seven-hour discussion last night on the situation arising out of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s refusal to come to the conference unless allowed to come as a free man, the DAC announced that it had appointed its convener Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan “as its sole representative” for talks with the President. Khwaja Shahabuddin, the senior-most member of the President’s team, thought that the DAC’s decision today was inconsistent and had “unsatisfactory implications”. Nawabzada Nasrullah was informed of this reaction of the Government when he came to Khwaja Sahib to convey the DAC’s decision ... However, neither the DAC nor the Government sources would say categorically that the conference would not be held. — Correspondent

Published in Dawn, February 20th, 2019