US sanctions Pakistani companies over N-trade

ISLAMABAD: The United States has imposed sanctions on seven Pakistani companies over suspicion they have links to the nuclear trade, potentially hurting Pakistan’s ambitions to join the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG).

Pakistani government spokesmen could not be immediately reached for comment on Monday.

Relations between the United States and Pakistan have been strained in recent years over Pakistan’s alleged support for Islamist militants waging war in Afghanistan, something Pakistani officials deny.

The US Bureau of Industry and Security, Commerce imposed the sanctions on the Pakistani companies on March 22 by placing them on its “Entity List”.

The companies had been “determined by the US government to be acting contrary to the national security or foreign policy interests of the United States”, the bureau said in a report on a US government website.

The Department of Commerce’s Entity List does not freeze assets but requires that US and foreign companies doing business with those on the list first obtain a licence.

Companies placed on the Entity List will need special licences to do business in the United States.

None of the seven sanctioned Pakistani companies, which are not well known, could be immediately reached for comment, nor could a Singaporebased company which the bureau said was linked to one of the Pakistani companies.

Of the latest companies to be sanctioned, Singapore-based Mushko Logistics and Pakistanbased Mushko Electronics “procured items for several Pakistani entities on the Entity List”, the US bureau said in its report. Another company, Solutions Engineering, “has been involved in the procurement of Us-origin items on behalf of nuclear-related entities in Pakistan that are already listed on the Entity List”.