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The New RCD.
A NEW ‘RCD’ has been formed. The original RCD stood for the Regional Coopera-tion for Development, established in 1964 by Iran (during the Shah’s reign), Pakistan (under Ayub Khan) and Turkiye (by another iron-fist, Cemal Gürsel). Its benefit to Pakistan is the 813-kilometre N-25 highway that connects the southern port of Karachi with the north-western city of Chaman on Pakistan’s border with Afghanistan. The N-25 is known as the ‘killer highway’, for having claimed more than 4,000 lives.
The first RCD was buried by the Iranian Revolution in 1979. The new RCD caps a more recent alliance — a regional cooperation for defence — signed on Aug 7 at Makkah by two earlier RCD stalwarts, Pakistan and Turkiye, with Saudi Arabia replacing Iran. A wreath of withered roses has been converted into a circlet of prickly thorns.
