India imports plan rejected
PAKISTAN’S government has made a swift Uturn on plans to allow limited imports of sugar, cotton and wheat from India after a political backlash against the move.
The government’s economic coordination committee said last Wednesday (31) that import permits would be approved in a bid to rein in rampant inflation, but politicians criticised the apparent thaw in relations with their rival neighbour.
Pakistan finance minister Hammad Azhar had said the government made the decision “in the interest of the people”, when asked why trade was resuming despite no change in New Delhi’s position on Kashmir – a divided territory claimed in full by both countries.
But last Thursday interior minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said the decision had been “deferred” until New Delhi restored Indianadministered Kashmir’s special status.
Islamabad suspended trade and diplomatic ties with India in 2019, when New Delhi imposed direct rule on the restive Muslim-majority
region and enforced a lockdown. Both countries withdrew their top diplomats, and consular staff were expelled or withdrawn.
There has been a frosty stand-off since, but signs of rapprochement recently have included Indian prime minister Narendra Modi and his Pakistani counterpart Imran Khan exchanging letters, as well as a resumption of talks last week on the use of resources from their shared Indus River.
Pakistan’s economy is in the doldrums, a position made worse by a third wave of the pandemic that has seen the reintroduction of partial lockdowns in the country.
The import of half a million tonnes of sugar would have slashed prices by up to 20 per cent ahead of Ramadan, when consumption soars. The economic committee had also paved the way for three million tonnes of wheat to be brought in, as well cotton and yarn.
Bloomberg reported last week the UAE had brokered back-channel talks between the two south Asian nations.