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Pakistan does U-turn on resuming trade ties with India
A Cabinet meeting chaired by PM Imran Khan rejected a decision made by a government panel on Wednesday to allow imports of sugar and cotton from India.
Pakistan on Thursday did a U-turn on a move for limited resumption of trade with India, with two federal ministers linking the normalisation of bilateral ties to the restoration of Jammu and Kashmir’s special status by New Delhi.
A Cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Imran Khan rejected a decision made by a government panel on Wednesday to allow imports of sugar and cotton from India to control prices and overcome a shortage.
Pakistan’s interior minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed told reporters in Islamabad after the cabinet meeting that the move to permit imports from India was “deferred till Article 370 is not restored”. Speaking in Urdu, he added, “Till then, [imports of] cotton and sugar will not happen.”
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Ahmed was referring to the Indian government’s decision of August 5, 2019, to scrap Article 370 of the Constitution, which gave special status to Jammu and Kashmir, and to split the state into two union territories.
Pakistan foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said in a video statement that the Cabinet deferred the move to import cotton and sugar from India so that there could be further deliberations on the matter.
“At the same time, there was an impression that relations with India are moving towards normalisation and trade has opened up. There was a discussion on this and there was a unanimous opinion among everyone, including the prime minister, that it will not be possible to normalise relations with India till India reviews the unilateral steps it had taken on August 5, 2019,” Qureshi said.
There was no immediate response from Indian officials to the Pakistan government’s decision. India had earlier rejected Pakistan’s stand on the changes in Jammu and Kashmir by saying it was an internal matter.
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The Pakistani flip-flop came hours after human rights minister Shireen Mazari, known for her anti-India stance, tweeted that all decisions made by the ECC have to be approved by the Cabinet.
“Just for the record – All ECC decisions have to be approved by cabinet & only then they can be seen as ‘approved by govt’! So today in the cabinet there will be a discussion on ECC decisions including trade with India and then the government decision will be taken!” Mazari said in her tweet.
On Wednesday, the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of Pakistan’s Cabinet decided to allow imports from India at a meeting chaired by the country’s new finance minister, Hammad Azhar. The panel approved imports of up to 500,000 tonnes of sugar by the private sector and allowed imports of cotton up to the end of June to meet the needs of small and medium enterprises.
If the ECC’s decision had been implemented, it would have led to the resumption of trade between the two countries after almost two years. Pakistan had unilaterally suspended trade with India in August 2019 to protest against the changes in Jammu and Kashmir.
If the ECC’s decision had been implemented, it would have led to the resumption of trade between the two countries after almost two years. Pakistan had unilaterally suspended trade with India in August 2019 to protest against the changes in Jammu and Kashmir.
Trade between India and Pakistan has invariably taken a hit whenever tensions spike between the countries, and this was also case when the 2019 Pulwama suicide attack triggered a military standoff.
The move by the Indian and Pakistani armies to strictly adhere to the ceasefire on the LoC from February 25 was the outcome of behind-the-scenes contacts between the two sides and led to a thaw in relations.
In recent weeks, Pakistan Army chief Gen Qamar Bajwa has spoken of the need to “bury the past and move forward”, while Prime Minister Khan has said India will have to take the first step for improving ties by addressing Kashmir, the only issue standing in the way of better relations.
