No trade until India returns autonomy to JK, Rejects proposal to lift ban on sugar, cotton imports from India: Pakistan
Pakistan Cabinet on Thursday decided that it will not import cotton and sugar from India.
In a tweet soon after the Cabinet meeting, Minister for Human Rights Shireen Mazari wrote, “Cabinet stated clearly NO trade with India.” The meeting was chaired by Prime Minister Imran Khan on Thursday
And today Cabinet stated clearly NO trade with India. PM made clear there can be no normalisation of relations with India until they reverse their illegal actions viz IIOJK of 5 Aug 2019. https://t.co/HDWt3kBM3c
— Shireen Mazari (@ShireenMazari1) April 1, 2021
“PM made clear there can be no normalisation of relations with India until they reverse” their actions viz Kashmir of August 5 2019, tweeted Mazari, who is known for her hawkish stand on Kashmir.
The Cabinet decision comes a day after Pakistan’s new finance minister, Hammad Azhar, on Wednesday announced that the country will lift a nearly-two year long ban on the import of cotton and sugar from India after a meeting of the ECC chaired by him.
Pakistan was one of the leading buyers of Indian cotton until 2019, when Islamabad banned imports of goods from India after New Delhi revoked the special status of Jammu and Kashmir.
The decision has been deferred until India reinstates Article 370 of its Constitution, which guaranteed a semi-autonomous status for Jammu and Kashmir. Pakistan had suspended all bilateral trade with Indian following New Delhi’s decision to revoke Article 370 in August 2019.
Speaking to Geo News, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi also said the cabinet had ruled that “normalising relations with India will not be possible” until it overturned the measures it took regarding occupied Kashmir’s special status.