ISLAMABAD: Agreement for a 25-million dollar loan for the purchase of fertilisers was signed here today [Oct 20] between Pakistan and the United States. Purchases under the loan are estimated to bring about 2.30 lakh tons of fertilisers for use during the fall next year.

East Pakistan is to receive one lakh tons of triple super phosphate and West Pakistan about 1.30 lakh tons of urea and phosphate.

According to the experts these quantities of fertilisers would suffice for four million acres of land in East Pakistan and raise the yield of rice from non-fertilised areas from 12 maunds to 90 maunds per acre. The US Aid Director in Pakistan, Mr William Knotos, who signed the agreement with Mr I.A. Khan, Secretary of the Economic Affairs Division, said that the new loan had raised United States support to the fertiliser import manufacture and distribution programme in Pakistan to 80 million dollars.—Agency

[Meanwhile, as reported by an agency at the United Nations,] only a fraction of the Arabs who fled the West Bank of the Jordan during the Middle East war last June have been able to return to their homes — and the rest face severe hardship in winter, the UN said yesterday [Oct 19].

Commissioner General Laurence Michelmore of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Arab refugees (UNRWA) told the General Assembly in an official report that the displaced persons represent a massive human problem. He said that of the refugees registered with UNRWA, the number permitted to go back to their homes was reported to be only about 3,000 out of the 83,000 who crossed to the East Bank before July 4 and who were therefore eligible to return under the conditions simulated by Israel. About 11,000 unregistered refugees had returned to their homes.

Published in Dawn, October 21st, 2017