RAWALPINDI: President Mohammad Ayub Khan has declared that so long as India maintained a posture of hostility and aggressiveness Pakistan could not lower its guard. He said the bigger the challenge posed to us, the greater would have to be our capacity and the greater the resolve with which we must meet it.

In a message to the nation on the occasion of Revolution Day, President Ayub emphasised that the `future of both Pakistan and India lies in peace`. He asked Indian leaders to pause and think whether their people wanted a future full of tension and chaos and whether they wanted to live in perpetual nightmare of war.

He called upon the Indian rulers `to realise for the sake of their people, if not for the cause of good neighbourliness, that their best interests lie in peace and not in war` President Ayub referred to the remarkable resurgence of faith and the indomitable spirit of sacrifice and discipline demonstrated by the people of Pakistan in the hour of trial.

[Meanwhile, as per a report from Washington,] an intensive campaign by the United States Government is under way to prepare the American Congress and public for greatly increased trade with the Communist bloc.

If the `softening up process is successful the US President plans to introduce an East-West Trade Relations Bill to Congress early next year which will give him discretion to extend the mostfavoured nation (MFN) treatment to Communist countries. The precise extent to which this discretion might be exercised would depend on circumstances but the intention is evidently to do so for all bloc countries with the exception of Eastern Germany and Albania.