QUETTA: Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto has said no transit facilities of any kind had been given to India “because that is not just normalisation. That goes beyond normalisation”... . The Prime Minister said this while speaking at a reception … [at] the Command and Staff College here this evening [Aug 3]. [He said] ... “we have not agreed to give transit trade facilities to India by road”. He said the Indian railway arrangements also ceased at the border. … Mr Bhutto said Pakistan stood for normalisation of relations with India but it could not brook any compromise on the ... Kashmir issue. — News agencies

[Meanwhile, as reported by news agencies from Rawalpindi,] Army detachments have been deployed in all flood-affected areas of the country to conduct rescue operations in assistance of civil authorities. Army medical teams have also been detailed in the affected areas to provide medical assistance... . The overall flood situation in the NWFP slightly improved today [Aug 3] as the flood water receded in most affected areas... . ... The road and rail traffic between Peshawar and Rawalpindi however, remained suspended ... due to damaged roads and rail tracks.

Published in Dawn, August 4th, 2026