Pakistan: Holding Together by a Thread

While Yahya Khan and even Mujibur Rahman are trying to hold the country together in however tenuous a form, Bhutto’s actions are making a grave situation all the more tense. Either Bhutto is unable to fathom the depth of the East Pakistani desire for self-rule or he is deliberately promoting a violent confrontation between the two wings to consolidate his power base in Punjab and Sindh through that age-old standby — chauvinism — for whipping up populist feelings. His latest threat is that he could also launch a mass disobedience movement in West Pakistan.