Pakistan’s foreign ministry has denied any proposal to restore trade ties with India. The statement contradicts recent remarks by the country’s foreign minister Muhammad Ishaq Dar.
Trade ties between India and Pakistan have remained suspended since August 2019. Indicating a potential shift in diplomatic stance, Dar said at a press conference in London following his participation in the Nuclear Energy Summit in Brussels that Pakistan will “seriously" consider restoring these relations.
However, foreign ministry spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch said Dar was speaking informally.
In an interview with local media, Baloch denied there was any diplomatic proposal for the restoration of ties.
“Such proposals are normal in any country," she said. “There is no formal proposal as we are not dealing with India because of its stand on Kashmir."
On asking about sending diplomats to India, Baloch said there was no such plan.
Pakistan had downgraded its diplomatic ties with India after the Narendra Modi government abrogated Article 370 sections, revoking the special status of Jammu and Kashmir, and then bifurcated the state into two union territories.
Union home minister Amit Shah on Tuesday emphasised during an interview tthat both the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the entire Parliament firmly believe that Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) is an integral part of India, asserting that both Muslims and Hindus living there are Indians.
Reacting to Baloch’s remarks, top Indian government sources said that this was not the stand of Islamabad but of the Pakistani army.
“The army doesn’t want Islamabad to run the government and maintain good relations with India," said an official.
The interview by the foreign office spokesperson two days after Dar’s statement clearly indicates who arranged it and for what purpose, said the sources.
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