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Islamabad
Pakistan has made a U-turn on resuming trade with India. On Thursday (Mar 28), Pakistan's Foreign Office said it had no plan to resume trade relations with India, days after new Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar said that Islamabad would seriously consider restoring ties with New Delhi.
Trade relations between the two countries have been non-existent since 2019 after the Modi government abrogated Article 370 of the Constitution to revoke the special status of Jammu and Kashmir.
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At the weekly press conference, Pakistan Foreign Office spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch was asked to comment on reports about the possibility of resumption of trade ties with India.
"Pakistan-India trade relations have been non-existent since 2019 when India took illegal steps in the illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir … There is no change in Pakistan's position on it," Baloch added.
What did Ishaq Dar say?
On March 23, Pakistan Foreign Minister Dar addressed a press conference in London where he highlighted the eagerness of Pakistan's business community to resume trade activities with India, the news agency PTI reported.
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"Pakistani businessmen want trade with India to resume," Dar said, adding that Islamabad would seriously look into matters of trade with New Delhi.
The foreign minister's remarks indicated a potential shift in diplomatic stance towards India.
A similar situation in 2021
A similar situation arose in April 2021, when Pakistan's Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) gave a go-ahead for imports of cotton and sugar from India. However, this decision was immediately deferred by the then-Imran Khan cabinet.
Then Human Rights minister Shireen Mazari said that Imran Khan made it clear that there could be no normalisation of relations with India until it reversed its actions over Kashmir taken in August 2019.
(With inputs from agencies)