Pakistan might grant India MFN status
Muhammad Najeeb (Indo-Asian News Service)
Islamabad, January 29
In what could be a turnabout from its traditional stand on trade ties, Pakistan may be about to grant the Most Favoured Nation (MFN) status to India among some “peace initiatives”.
“The steps (towards normalising relations) may also include grant of Most Favoured Nation (MFN) status to India,” a senior government official told IANS.
The official disclosed this in the context of talks that visiting Indian Opposition leader Subramanian Swamy had with Pakistani leaders in Islamabad, including President Pervez Musharraf.
“The Commerce Ministry is preparing a draft on granting India MFN status,” he said.
He said Swamy was told that Pakistan wants to normalise ties on “equal terms”.
The source said that Swamy’s meeting with Musharraf had focused on the state of relations between New Delhi and Islamabad.
Swamy, president of the Janata Party, is visiting on the government’s invitation.
“The President referred to a spate of hostile statements emanating from Indian leaders and emphasised the need to display responsibility,” the official said.
Swamy stressed the importance of normalising bilateral ties during the talks, which were held at Army House in the capital and lasted for around an hour.
Swamy said, “At the meeting, I suggested to Musharraf that talks on the South Asia Preferential Trade Agreement (SAPTA) be concluded before the next summit meeting of SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation).”
The official said that the Foreign Ministry was already in the process of fixing a date for the SAARC meeting.
Swamy said he had also asked that 280 Indian fishermen and 22 Sikhs imprisoned in Pakistan be released as a gesture of goodwill. “He (the President) assured me that they would be released soon through diplomatic channels.”
“When I asked for the release of 400 other Indian prisoners in Pakistan, Musharraf suggested that the Indian High Commission confirm their nationality and then the matter will be taken up, also through diplomatic channels.”
Swamy said Musharraf told him Pakistan was trying to prevent infiltration across the Line of Control (LoC) in the conflict-torn state of Jammu and Kashmir.
“There are even freelance terrorists, trained in Afghanistan, Bosnia or Chechnya. We are trying to stop them from crossing into India, but we face the same difficulty as Indian forces; how to stop such movements,” Musharraf said.
Musharraf reiterated that charges of training camps operating in Pakistan-administered Kashmir were incorrect.
“Some Russian official made a statement that there are 70 to 72 terrorist camps. We have offered that the Russians physically inspect the area and show us where the terrorist camps are,” Swamy quoted the Pakistani President as saying.
“I may be a General, but I am a man for peace because I cannot stand to see innocent people dying. I have been put into a corner by India. It is easy for me to raise religious slogans also, but I am trying hard to build a modern civil society in Pakistan,” Musharraf was quoted as saying.
Musharraf added, “India should agree to attend the SAARC meeting and reinstate the High Commissioner back to Pakistan.”
India had said it could consider attending the SAARC summit if Pakistan reciprocated India’s gestures on the economic front and took proactive steps to implement the SAPTA and formalise the South Asian Free Trade Area (SAFTA).
