Pakistan says trade regime with India remains unchanged

Trade with India remains unchanged despite strained bilateral ties, Pakistan’s commerce minister Khurram Dastgir said, amid reports that a huge quantity of Indian raw cotton had been put on hold at Karachi Port.

Trade with India remains unchanged despite strained bilateral ties, Pakistan’s commerce minister Khurram Dastgir said, amid reports that a huge quantity of Indian raw cotton had been put on hold at Karachi Port.

Trucks line up on roads as Indo-Pak trade slows at the Attari Border road near the integrated check post in Amritsar on September 10, 2016. (Sameer Sehgal / Hindustan Times)

Dastgir made the remarks at the Senate Standing Committee on Textile Industry in response to a question raised by committee chairman senator Mohsin Aziz, who said a huge quantity of Indian raw cotton had been put on hold at Karachi Port, state-run Associated Press of Pakistan reported.

Responding to the question, Dastgir on Thursday said that the government has not issued any notification in this regard.

However, he said the government has placed a restriction on importing 500,000 cotton bales in a year through Wagah border while there was not any such restriction on Karachi port.

Pakistan this year surpassed Bangladesh to become India’s top cotton buyer.

Aziz said the government should instead ban value-added products from the neighbouring country in a bid to protect the local textile industry.

Dastgir said the government was committed to resolve all the genuine issues of the textile industrialists and it had already met a number of their demands including provision of uninterrupted electricity and gas to the industry.

It was decided that a meeting would be held in Karachi to resolve the issue of banking sector with the textile industry in which representatives from the textile industry, the State Bank of Pakistan, National Bank of Pakistan and private banks would be invited.