ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and Iran tonight [May 9] signed a long-term trade agreement and a separate transit trade agreement, in order to expand trade between the two countries. The agreement was signed by the visiting Iranian Commerce Minister Mr Fereidoun Mahdawi and Federal Commerce Minister Mr Mir Afzal Khan. The long-term trade agreement provides for commodity deals “to encourage a greater flow of goods between the two countries.” Official sources [said] that the … agreement is for five years, and is renewable. It replaces the 1962 agreement between the two countries.

[Meanwhile as reported by news agencies from Bangkok,] the Cambodian Government has instituted a “sound, clean social system” free from corruption, graft, prostitution and alcoholism, Radio Phnom Penh said today [May 9]. The “new” Cambodia will be predominantly agricultural, the broadcast … said. “During the time of the war of aggression of the US imperialists, their stooges … the Lon Nol clique … produced nothing, either in the agricultural or industrial fields,” the radio broadcast said. “They eked out their existence depending entirely on US imperialist aid, and through this aid, they imported everything from abroad.”

Published in Dawn, May 10th, 2025