GOVERNMENT IN PAKISTAN

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28742, 13 November 1958, Page 7

GOVERNMENT IN PAKISTAN

City Clergyman’s Impressions

“I was impressed that everybody except politicians and big businessmen were in full support of the establishment of military rule in Pakistan.” said the Rev. A. A. Brash, general secretary of the New Zealand National Council of Churches and secretary of the East Asia Christian Conference.

Mr Brash has returned from a tour of Ceylon. India, Pakistan, and Thailand, where, with other members of the East-Asian Christian Conference, the problems of relief work, refugee conditions, and the needs of the churches, particularly in the Pakistan flood areas, were studied. The reason for the unanimous support of the new military government was because black marketing on a large scale had developed, said Mr Brash. People were hoarding large quantities of rice to force the price up and those responsible were being severely punished. In West Pakistan, which had a population of 43.000.000, one of the most acute problems was the loss of cultivated land because of the continual floods, said Mr Brash. Underground salt was washed up in such quantities that the surface soil had become sterile. Of 72.000.000 acres cultivated in 1950. 6,000.000 were already deserted, and the government estimated a loss of 2 per cent, of cultivated land per annum, he said.

"In a country where population is a major problem not much imagination is needed to see where this will lead,’’ said Mr Brash. He said it gave him a thrill to see on hoardings and posters advertisements for cement, a product that came under the Colombo Plan Aid provided by New Zealand.