RAWALPINDI: Mr Altaf Husain, Central Minister for Industries, said here today [Feb 23]that if ever the people of East Pakistan were confronted with the menace of a real separatist move, the overwhelming majority of them would oppose it, even at the stake of their lives.

The people of East Pakistan knew, Mr Altaf Husain said, that secession would not give them freedom to exist as an independent entity, but that it was another name for return to the domination of the communalists of India, which would mean slavery in its worst form.

Commenting on a recent speech by Mr Nurul Amin, the Opposition leader in the National Assembly, Mr Altaf Husain said although Mr Nurul Amin had condemned the so-called secessionist move, it sounded lil(e an `understatement`. Dismissing so sinister and destructive a trend as `a childish proposition` was not enough, Mr Altaf Husain pointed out.

Mr Nurul Amin had also asserted in his speech that `misunderstanding` between the people of the two Wings would be removed after the `restoration of parliamentary form of Government in the country`. Agency