Pakistani PM to chair meeting today to review ties with India

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan has called a meeting today, Friday, of Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi and other senior officials of the foreign office to review Pakistan’s ties with India, local media reported.
Pakistan’s cabinet on Thursday put off allowing imports of cotton and sugar from neighboring India until Delhi revised a 2019 decision to revoke the special autonomy of the disputed Kashmir region.
Just a day earlier, on Wednesday, Pakistan’s Economic Coordination Committee had given the go-ahead for the imports, which would have ended a two-year ban on trade between the nuclear-armed rivals.
“The prime minister will take a holistic review of the current status of the relationship between the two countries after recent developments,” Geo News said about Friday’s planned meeting. “Decision has also been taken to constitute a cabinet committee for issues relating to trade with India, which would give its recommendations on the matter.”
Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed told reporters ob Thursday the decision to allow Indian imports had been “deferred” until New Delhi restored Indian-administered Kashmir’s special status.
In a video message after a Thursday cabinet meeting to review the decision on Indian imports, Foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said:
“It was everyone’s unanimous decision, including the prime minister’s, that until India does not revise the August 5, 2019 unilateral decision [to revoke the special autonomy of Kashmir], normalizing relations with India will not be possible.”
Earlier this week, Khan responded to a letter by his Indian counterpart, which Narendra Modi had written on the occasion of Pakistan’s Republic Day on March 23, saying the government and people of his country wanted peaceful and cooperative relations with all neighbors, including India.
“Durable peace and security in South Asia is contingent upon resolving all outstanding issues between India and Pakistan, particularly the Jammu and Kashmir dispute,” Khan said in his letter.
Qureshi this week also acknowledged progress in relations between the two South Asian neighbors, saying there had been “positive developments” such as the announcement of a cease-fire on the disputed Kashmir border in February and the resumption of water talks last month.
India and Pakistan have fought three wars since gaining independence from British colonial rule in 1947.