DACCA: Pakistan and Bangladesh are expected to begin talks early next month to discuss problems arising from the creation of Bangladesh ... according to Foreign Minister Kamal Hossain. They would discuss establishing economic relations and problems like assets, liabilities and debt payments, he told reporters here. Dr Kamal said that by agreeing this week to drop plans to try 195 Pakistani prisoners of war for alleged war crimes, Bangladesh had “achieved the ends of a trial without really holding a trial”.

[Meanwhile, as reported by news agencies from Algiers,] Algeria has called on Arab countries to set up a common currency based on the average price of a barrel of oil due to world monetary instability. The proposal came in a study dealing with Arab countries and international monetary problems carried out by the Algerian Development Bank. … “The barrel of oil could be the Arab world’s unit of measure on which to peg an Arab monetary unit,” the Bank study said. “The vast financial resources of the Arab world must be protected. Should the dollar return to a fixed parity with gold, it will have lost a third of its value, implying an equal loss for Arab assets,” it went on.

Published in Dawn, April 13th, 2024