There was no issue of the paper on this date on account of the Pakistan Day holiday. The exc­erpt below is taken from the previous day’s edition.

ISLAMABAD: A Foreign Office spokesman said today [March 22] that Pakistan was interested in seeing if she could find some buyers for the kind of military equipment she was producing. Replying to newsmen’s questions … he said the question had figured at the Islamic Summit Conference also. Asked if Pakistan was trying to get Arab oil money invested in arms production in Pakistan, he said Pakistan was most interested in the possibility of the oil-producing countries being able to set a part of their extra billion dollars in Pakistan… .

He said Pakistan had had discussions with the leaders of Libya and Abu Dhabi and some other countries — looking for the possibility of co-operation in different fields. But these negotiations had not reached a mature stage yet. … Asked if Pakistan had been able to get oil at concessional rates, he said, “Not in terms of what Britain has been able to obtain from Iran or what India has been able to obtain from Iran. But the possibility is being explored.”

Published in Dawn, March 24th, 2024