COMMENTARY
INTERVIEWS
SPECIALS
CHAT
ARCHIVES

Pak's former foreign minister decries linking bilateral trade with Kashmir

Former foreign minister of Pakistan Sardar Assef Ahmed Ali has opposed the Nawaz Sharief government's policy of linking trade with India with the Kashmir issue.

Speaking at the Lahore High Court Bar Association recently, Ali said trade with India will have no impact on the Kashmir question. He recalled that Pakistan had trade with the Soviet Union during the 1980s when it was fighting in Afghanistan.

Ali warned Pakistan of the possibility of India seeking to isolate it if it refused to meet its obligations under the World Trade Organisation. Pakistan has been persistent in its refusal to give India the most favoured nation status, as required by the WTO, mainly because of its Kashmir policy.

Pakistan had stopped private trade with India in July 1978 (under military ruler General Zia-ul-Haq) under pressure from fundamentalists and the business community. While subsequent governments hesitated to lift this ban, smuggled Indian goods flooded the markets in Lahore and Karachi.

In his address, Ali also suggested that Punjab should be divided into three provinces -- Lahore, Rawalpindi and Multan. That, according to him, was the only way to save Pakistan. The Sharief government, he said, has created an intense hatred for Punjab among smaller provinces.

UNI

Today's business stories