Trade relations with Pakistan going strong, says Colombo

COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s foreign affairs ministry on Thursday dismissed media reports that trade with Pakistan had come to a grinding halt due to violence against Muslims in the wake of Easter day bombings in the island nation last month, adding that trade ties were going strong and would be further developed. 
The April 21 attacks, claimed by militant group Daesh, targeted three churches and three luxury hotels and left over 250 people dead, shocking the island and shattering a decade of relative peace after the end of a 25-year civil war.
Sri Lanka’s director of public diplomacy, Niluka Kadurgamuwa, rejected the contents of an article published by Pakistan’s Express Tribune newspaper on May 20.
“Our high commission in Islamabad has contacted the concerned newspaper to ascertain the veracity of the story through its office of the consul general in Karachi that mainly deals with corporate and commercial matters,” Kadurgamuwa told Arab News on Thursday.
Sri Lankan high commissioner in Islamabad, Noordeen Mohamed Shaheid, said the news item was willfully fabricated by people with vested interests.
Talking to Arab News, he said that the high commission had contacted the chairman of the Pakistan-Sri Lanka Business Forum, Aslam Pakhali, who was quoted in the Pakistani news report.
“As it turned out, Mr. Pakhali had not made such a statement or provided any such information to the newspaper,” he said. “Thereupon I wrote to the editor of The Express Tribune, expressed my dismay and dissatisfaction over the fake news and demanded a correction thereof,” he added.
The high commissioner said Pakhali had not even met the reporter, noting: “The said fake news item has been published without proper verification of the facts contained therein.”
The envoy continued that trade relations between the two nations were growing from strength to strength and “we are [also] discussing new strategies to develop bilateral trade.” 
Pakistan’s Express Tribune newspaper had earlier quoted Pakhali as saying: “Rice and textile exports to Sri Lanka from Pakistan have stopped. Potato export has also reduced drastically.”
“It is the Muslim community in Sri Lanka that imports Pakistani products and sells them there. They are partners of Pakistani exporters,” Pakhali was quoted as saying, adding that the properties of Muslims were damaged during the recent wave of violence over there.
“Their shops, super stores and godowns are being targeted. The goods exported from Pakistan have been unloaded at the Sri Lankan port, but the importers are not getting them cleared because of the deteriorating law and order situation there. The goods, especially fruits and vegetables, in godowns are perishing. Sri Lanka is a major importer of Pakistani rice and textile products, but the exports have come to a halt.”