PESHAWAR: Former NWFP Governor Arbab Sikandar Khan Khalil confirmed this morning [May 8] that informal political talks were going on between the Baluchistan NAP and the Government. He told newsmen in the Assembly Chamber that the Baluchistan NAP had been in constant touch with the frontier NAP and its Central body in this connection. … Asked whether the present talks were on formation of a PPP-NAP coalition government in Baluchistan, Arbab Sikandar ... said: “We will have full details of the outcome shortly when a representative of Baluchistan NAP comes to Peshawar.” — Correspondent

[Meanwhile, as reported by our commercial reporter,] although the stock market remained open yesterday [May 8] no transaction was reported to have materialised as operators decided to ... do no business. Their ‘sit-down strike’ was said to be in protest against conditions in the stock market where values have been steadily falling and no steps were being taken to remedy the situation. Meanwhile, the Board of Directors of Karachi Stock Exchange has denied that its members and directors have decided to boycott trading from May 8, 1974... .

Published in Dawn, May 9th, 2024