US Economic Correspondent
Washington, July 11
The Pakistan Government stands accused of administrative incompetence and militant brutality in one of the most scathing reports on a member country ever prepared by the World Bank.

The initial reaction of Mr Robert McNamara, the president of the bank, according to sources here, was to forbid distribution of the report within the bank in an attempt to prevent its findings from becoming public.

This strategy collapsed when it was learnt that the Washington Post was going to give prominence to this “suppression” and late on Friday copies of the report were distributed hurriedly to directors of the bank.

World Bank sources today defended Mr McNamara’s original decision on the ground that the report was intended for presentation at the June 21 meeting of the Pakistan aid consortium in Paris.

It had not been completed by that date, they said, so Mr Peter Cargill, director of the bank’s South Asia department, had communicated the contents orally at the meeting. In this situation, the sources said, there was a good case for deciding that no good purpose could be served by later distributing a highly controversial and politically sensitive report on a fast changing situation.

The report is highly sceptical about the economic statistics and projections published by the Pakistan Government and finds that the economic situation in both the east and west wings of Pakistan is considerably worse than the Pakistan authorities say it is.

The outlook is seen as bleak in the extreme, with exports declining and foreign exchange reserves running out fast. Widespread famine in East Pakistan, which suffered devastating damage from a cyclone last November before its military occupation, is seen as likely this autumn.

The Government, according to the report, is ignorant of the state of affairs in East Pakistan and either ignorant, or insensitive, to the level of world hostility to its actions.