QUETTA: Work on the construction of the modern fish harbour at Gwadur … has been taken in hand and a project director has already been appointed in this regard. This was revealed by the Governor of Baluchistan, Mr Mohammad Akbar Khan Bugti … today [Dec 23]. The Governor said that NASPA, a Central Government agency, was inviting pre-qualification papers … for the construction of the harbour. The actual construction work will start with the approval of the Provincial Government. … The Governor expressed the hope that the project would be ready during the next financial year, (1974-75).

[Meanwhile, as reported by news agencies from Paris,] Israel’s victory in the six-day war created “a dangerous state of mind” of invincibility, Foreign Minister Abba Eban said in an interview… . “…too much confidence in ourselves, too much turbulent and often thoughtless rhetoric,” the Israeli leader told … “le Point”. Now, after the October war, everything is different, he said. The Arabs have in our eyes, as in the eyes of the world, reconquered a dignity, and especially in their own eyes. This is why negotiation is possible today while it was not yesterday, he said.

Published in Dawn, December 24th, 2023