MIANWALI: Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto declared here today [March 17] that Pakistan was capable of defending her territorial integrity. “No nation can harm Pakistan,” he told a mammoth public meeting … while referring to Afghanistan. … Reaffirming Pakistan’s determination to stand by Kashmiris’ struggle for … self-determination, Mr Bhutto said he had written to Indian Premier Mrs Indira Gandhi proposing talks on the Kashmir issue. The Prime Minister also discussed the economic situation obtaining in the country, and assured that the Pakistan People’s Party “will never deviate” from its “Awami manifesto which aims at serving the masses”. He said: “Pakistan has full potential to safeguard its solidarity and integrity, and no intrigue, whatsoever, to harm this country can succeed.”

[Meanwhile, as reported by news agencies from Teheran,] Iran and Iraq reached formal agreement here ... on settling their 48-year-old border disputes. The Foreign Ministers, after an all-night session, signed a protocol ... fixing the frontiers in the manner agreed when the Shahanshah and Iraqi Vice-President Saddam Hussein met in Algiers earlier this month.

Published in Dawn, March 18th, 2025