PAKISTAN: Time for Forgiveness

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Since the end of the Indo-Pakistani war a year and a half ago, the countries of the subcontinent have been locked in a frosty stalemate of mutual recriminations. Caught in the diplomatic freeze are hundreds of thousands of refugees and prisoners of war. Pakistani President Zulfikar Ali Bhutto last week moved decisively to thaw relations.

In an emotional post-midnight session of the National Assembly, Bhutto argued that it was time for "mutual forgiveness and understanding" to govern relations between Pakistan and Bangladesh, formerly Pakistan's eastern wing. "We want to meet one another; we want to embrace one another; we want to shed tears over one another, over what has happened in the past," he declared. The Assembly overwhelmingly passed a resolution authorizing recognition of Bangladesh as an independent country.

Bhutto said that he would not use the authority immediately, but it obviously paves the way for a compromise by the subcontinent's three antagonists. Bangladesh wants recognition in order to obtain United Nations membership this fall. Pakistan is anxious for the repatriation of its 90,000 prisoners of war still in India—and India is almost as anxious to get rid of them.

It was agreed last week that the repatriation of prisoners will be discussed by Pakistan and India in high-level talks next week. At the same time, the fate of some 200,000 Bengalis who have been held hostage in Pakistan since the war and want to return to Bangladesh will be negotiated along with the disposition of about 250,000 Biharis in Bangladesh who want to go to Pakistan. Bhutto told TIME that Dacca's intention to try 195 P.O.W.s was still "the main hurdle" to successful negotiations.

He backed down, however, on his earlier refusal to allow the Biharis to be repatriated to Pakistan. "There's no problem of repatriation of Bengalis from here," he said. "And there's no problem to negotiate the future of the unfortunate [Biharis] who are now known by the generic name of non-Bengalis. But we cannot open the floodgates and say send as many as you want." Matching Bhutto's softening positions, India released 438 P.O.W.s on medical grounds and Pakistan freed 479 Bengalis.

On the eve of what was to have been a six-day state visit to the U.S. this week (now postponed until September because of President Nixon's illness), the American-educated Pakistani President, 45, discussed the troubled subcontinent with TIME Correspondent William Stewart at the presidential mountaintop retreat at Murree in the hills above Rawalpindi. "As Bhutto walked in, smiling, confident and modishly dressed in a blue striped suit with a figured tie, his personal gunman quietly withdrew," cabled Stewart. "During the next hour and a half, he displayed all the animation, emotion and sly intelligence that has baffled India's leaders since he became President of Pakistan. Later we were joined by his wife and three of his four children, including a son who is home for the summer from Harvard and a daughter who just graduated cum laude from Radcliffe. Both majored in government."

Some points from the interview: