OSLO: The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded today [Oct 20] to the International Labour Organisation (ILO), the Nobel Committee announced. The prize this year is worth 385,000 Swedish kroner (72,000 dollars).

The ILO was one of 45 candidates proposed to the Nobel Committee composed of members of the Norwegian Storting (Parliament). The award to ILO was given because the committee was unable to find an individual suitable for the 51st Peace Prize.

The Geneva-based International Labour Organisation was founded in 1919 as part of the Versailles Peace Treaty ending World War I. Its purpose was declared to be to improve workers’ conditions in ILO countries in order to create more stable conditions and thereby contribute to the safeguarding of world peace, the Nobel Committee’s announcement said.

[Meanwhile, according to an agency in Islamabad,] The President, Gen A.M. Yahya Khan, today [Oct 20] cabled warm felicitations to Prime Minister Alexei Kosygin on the successful conclusion of the latest Soyuz space mission. The President said: “The successful conclusion of the operation is an important step forward in the advancement of human knowledge of outer space and [I] take this opportunity to extend to Your Excellency, the Soviet scientists and the astronauts my warm felicitations of their achievements.”

Published in Dawn, October 21st, 2019