OTTAWA: The International Atomic Energy Agency has approved the agreement Pakistan had signed with France for the setting up of a reprocessing atomic plant in Karachi. This was disclosed here … by Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto while addressing a crowded Press conference. Meanwhile, he said, negotiations were still going on with the Canadian authorities on the quantum of safeguards for similar purchase of a reactor from Canada. He expressed the hope that Canada would not equate Pakistan with some other country which had betrayed its confidence. “Canada was misled, taken for a ride,” he said. [He] emphatically … declared that Pakistan was not interested in atomic explosion. — News agencies

[Meanwhile, as reported by news agencies,] Maulana Kausar Niazi, Federal Minis­ter for Religious Affairs and Minorities, an­­nounced … that a Cultural Council for mi­­­­norities wou­ld be set up within a month for promoting their cultural activities on a country-wide level. In his presidential address at the minorities convention … [he] said he had sanctioned Rs 1,00,000 … for encouraging cultural activities among minority communities.

Published in Dawn, February 26th, 2026