UNITED NATIONS: Pakistan yesterday [Dec 9] accepted the General Assembly’s call for a cease-fire and withdrawal of troops, in a letter to Secretary-General U Thant. Pakistani Ambassador Agha Shahi yesterday afternoon handed over the reply which said his Government was “willing to overlook” the inadequacies of the Assembly resolution, passed with an overwhelming majority on Tuesday [Dec 7] evening.

In the letter, Pakistan said it hoped the United Nations would take concrete and decisive steps to put the cease-fire into operation and asked for UN observers to be stationed at frontiers. India has not so far replied to the General Assembly’s appeal. In Rawalpindi, a Foreign Office spokesman said the General Assembly resolution calling for a cease-fire and withdrawal of Indian and Pakistani troops was binding on both India and Pakistan.

[Meanwhile, as reported by news agencies in Frankfurt,] Pakistan’s deputy Premier-designate Mr Zulfikar Ali Bhutto said here last night [Dec 9] that Pakistan was ready to open negotiations with India for a peaceful solution of the Indo-Pakistani conflict. Mr Bhutto, who made a stopover here … said he … would be simply conferring with delegates from friendly countries. He said Pakistan was not only fighting India, but the big Powers. It would fight on for a thousand years if necessary, he added.

Published in Dawn, December 11th, 2021