[en] Full text: Chickpea is the most important grain legume crop of Pakistan. Ascochyta blight (Ascochyta rabiei) and Fusarium wilt (Fusarium oxysporum F. sp cicer) are most serious diseases, having the potential to devastate a crop. A multiple disease resistant and high yielding mutant CM 88 has been developed through 100 Gy gamma irradiation treatment of variety 'C 727'. This was once a widely grown and popular variety, which lost its resistance to Ascochyta and was replaced. The selection of mutants was performed in the M2 generation grown in the Ascochyta blight nursery and sixteen mutants were selected. In the subsequent generations CM 88 proved resistant to both Ascochyta blight and Fusarium wilt, and exhibited superiority in agronomic characteristics. CM 88 was also tested for many years in the various yield trials on research stations and farmers fields throughout the country. In these trials it out yielded both the parent and standard varieties. The mutant CM 88 has been approved by the Punjab Seed Council on 27 October 1994 for general cultivation in the Punjab Province, especially the Thal area which accounts for more than 70% of the area under chickpea cultivation. (author)