Washington Star/Evening Star

In view of the tragic news from East Pakistan, it strikes us as odd that the government in Islamabad should pick this particular time to make a major pitch for $70 million in economic development loans from the United States. It strikes us as even odder that the plea has apparently been sympathetically received at the White House and the State Department.

American economic aid for Pakistan has been suspended since March 25 when West Pakistani troops were ordered to crush a movement for political independence by the predominantly Bengali population of East Pakistan. The program is "under review," with the implication that no new funds will be freed as long as the killing goes on.

And quite evidently it is going on at a horrifying pace. Western reporters who have recently visited East Pakistan have estimated the deaths on both sides at up to half a million. The Indian government reports that it is giving refuge to some 2.6 million Bengali refugees, with many more expected. Millions of others face death from disease and starvation, through the destruction of food stocks and transportation facilities. Willfully or not, conditions are being created that could result in the expulsion or extermination of a substantial portion of East Pakistan's population.

Until now, the government in Islamabad has refused to allow the distribution of aid for East Pakistan by any of the international relief agencies. It remains to be seen whether acceptance of an offer of help from the United Nations will change matters. A few days ago the provincial military governor declared bluntly that 'the outside world will simply have to take our word that aid will be effectively distributed by us." Under the circumstances, the outside world will do no such thing.

It is not hard to understand why the Pakistanis want American loans. Their exercise in military repression has brought the nation to the brink of bankruptcy, The resumption Of the aid program - which has been running at a rate of some $200 million a year - is believed essential to maintain the stability of Pakistan's currency.

What is hard to understand is why Secretary of State Rogers should have encouraged M. M. Ahmed, senior economics adviser to the Pakistan government, to take his pitch for aid directly to the American people in a public hearing Or the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The committee chairman, J. William Fulbright, quite correctly in our view, turned down that suggestion. The American people are not in a mood to finance experiments in genocide.