West Meets East

Pakistan is run by a leadership which professes democracy but feels dragged toward dictatorship. Eight months ago, faced with public resentment against the ruling Moslem League, Governor General Ghulam Mohammed dissolved the Constituent Assembly and took over power for himself. Last month he called on the six provincial legislatures to elect representatives to a new Assembly. The result last week: a heavy defeat for the Moslem League.

Though it won more Assembly seats than any other party (25 out of 72), it failed to win a majority for the first time in Pakistan's eight years as a nation. The Moslem League took its worst beating in overcrowded East Pakistan (pop. 42 million), which has never cottoned to being dominated by distant Karachi, 1,000 miles across India. Emerging triumphant in East Pakistan was the United Front of fat, cantankerous, 83-year-old Fazlul Huq, whom the government ousted last year as provincial chief minister of East Pakistan on the ground of separatist "treasonable activities." Unable to suppress him, the Moslem League now decided to join him. The League and Huq's United Front will form a coalition under amiable Premier Mohammed Ali, and Huq's men will be represented in the Cabinet.

Still missing in Pakistan after eight years: a constitution and a popularly elected Parliament.

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