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| Pak to give weightage to trade and travel | | | A case of double speak.A case of double standard as far as Islamabad's plan to mend fences with New Delhi is concerned.On one hand it seems to stick to its commitment on withholding grant of Most Favoured Nation (MFN) status to India,on the other it is keen to promote trade with its immediate neighbour.Reports indicate that at one stage,two months ago,Islamabad was poised to grant MFN status to India and a formal decision was to be announced shortly.The announcement has not been made even after the passage of two months when the cabinet had cleared the issue.Without formally or informally conveying to India that Islamabad was not willing to grant MFN status it is simply adopting dilly dallying tactics.Well New Delhi was not under any economic and political pressure to seek the favour from Pakistan.According to these reports,Islamabad changed its plan on granting MFN status to India after the Army,the ISI,the fundamentalists conveyed their displeasure to the Government headed by Asif Ali Zardari.The Pakistani Army authorities told the establishment in Islamabad that granting MFN status to India will allow New Delhi to keep the Kashmir issue in the cold store.They wanted Zardari and Gilani to take on board the Army and the ISI while evolving some new policy vis-a-vis India.
Since Islamabad had realised that it used to suffer an annual loss to the tune of two billion dollars it decided to initiate measures for promoting bilateral trade without granting the MFN status to India which could keep the ISI and the Army in good humour.The two sides have prepared a framework for increasing the level of bilateral trade and reports reveal that during the next two to three years the annual bilateral trade was to go up from 2.7 billion US dollars to over six billion dollars.An agreement to this effect is likely to be reached during the next parleys either between the commerce secretaries or commerce ministers of the two countries.Though India has granted MFN status to Pakistan in 1996, Islamabad did not reciprocate despite enormous losses it suffered.In fact Pakistan needs about 6,000 items to be imported from India per year and against this it has been importing 1936 items.This way Pakistan is a sufferer on two counts.First, for items imported from other countries Pakistan has to pay more. Secondly, Islamabad has been importing Indian-make goods and items from Dubai which is costlier than if imported direct from India.
The fundamntalists,or the terrorists or the ISI or the Army in Pakistan want Islamabad to make all future talks Kashmir centric.They want Islamabad to lay emphasis on settling the Kashmir issue instead of giving weightage to trade and travel.But Islamabad has been feeling the pinch of financial crunch and hence it does not want to increase its economic difficulties by maintaining restricted trade practices with India.And in order to boost bilateral trade Islamabad and New Delhi have agreed to simplify visa rules which would mainly cover the business persons from both sides.This step is being taken to promote people to people,business class to businessmen contact and interaction.Fortunately Islamabad has also realised that trade and people to people contact should not suffer because of the Kashmir issue which,of late Pakistan,believes is insoluble."Let the Kashmir issue settlement wait and let the two sides reduce trust deficit which was needed for the restoration of peace and normalcy in the Indian subcontinent" is the new mantra that has been adopted by New delhi and Islamabad.Indications are that once the trade pr actices were promoted even without granting the MFN status to India Pakistan could import as many as 2500 to 3,000 items from India allowing the two sides to reduce the gulf that exists between Islamabad and New Delhi. |
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