TARBELA: Prime Minister Z.A. Bhutto said here today [Oct 4] that we must pay undivided attention to complete necessary repairs at Tarbela project … so that Pakistan could achieve … self-sufficiency in food. Addressing World Bank and other experts … he assured them of Pakistan Government’s whole-hearted co-operation in this gigantic task as … Pakistan’s future position in the sub-continent and in this region depended wholly on Tarbela. He told foreign consultants and engineers that although at Tarbela their sense of pride and reputation was at stake and finances of some of them were involved, yet the damage to Pakistan was the greatest.

[Meanwhile, as reported by agencies from Jeddah,] Saudi Arabia is using its oil income of six billion dollars a year to give the country an economic boom. … Rice and sugar prices have been stabilised at last year’s price level by an import subsidy programme. … More Saudis are now buying big U.S. cars. The port is jammed with ships and the marts are full of merchandise, people just buy the things they like; there is no argument over prices. Tens of thousands of workers from Yemen, Sudan, Ethiopia are finding jobs here.

Published in Dawn, October 5th, 2024