ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Finance Minister Miftah Ismail said on Wednesday the government will consult its coalition partners and “key stakeholders” on whether it will import food items through the South Asian country’s land border with India.
Floods caused by heavy monsoon rains in Pakistan have killed over 1,100 and destroyed cotton, rice and other crops in various parts of the country since the beginning of the monsoon season in mid-June. Some experts have also warned that the country may find it difficult to sow the next wheat crop due to the damage to agricultural lands in certain regions.
Pakistan already reported 25 percent inflation in July, mainly due to escalating food prices in the country. Prices of food items, especially vegetables, have increased in various parts of the country following the devastation wreaked by floods.
On Wednesday, Ismail said international agencies have approached the government to allow them to bring food items to the country from India through its land border with Pakistan.
“The govt will take the decision to allow imports or not based on supply shortage position, after consulting its coalition partners & key stakeholders,” he wrote on Twitter.
Ismail had also hinted earlier this week that Pakistan can resume trade with India and import vegetables from the country. Islamabad suspended trade ties with New Delhi in August 2019, after India revoked Kashmir’s special constitutional status, infuriating Pakistan.
Since then, the two countries have also experienced significant diplomatic tensions between them and their leaders have avoided interacting even on multilateral forums.
The nuclear-armed South Asian neighbors have fought two out of three wars over the past seven decades over Kashmir— a territory both countries lay claim to but administer parts of.
