Prime Minister Imran Khan held consultations with key members of his cabinet on Friday and decided that Pakistan could not go ahead with any trade with India under the current circumstances referring to the ECC’s decision earlier.
Pakistan has constantly stated that any forward movement requires India to create an enabling environment by revisiting its unilateral and illegal measures of August 5, 2019 regarding India-held Kashmir.
Sources said that the prime minister instructed the Ministry of Commerce and his economic team to immediately take steps to facilitate the relevant sectors, value added, apparel and sugar, by finding alternative cheap sources of import of the needed commodities.
According to the sources, various proposals have been presented to the ECC which considers these suggestions from economic and commercial point of view. After consideration by the ECC, its decisions are presented to the cabinet for ratification and final approval.
The source said that in the present case, a proposal was presented to the ECC to allow import of cotton, cotton yarn and sugar from India keeping in view domestic requirements.
The ECC had decided on commercial grounds to recommend these imports for the cabinet’s consideration.
While this decision was not on the formal agenda of the cabinet meeting, the issue was brought up by cabinet members and the prime minister instructed that the ECCs decision be deferred and immediately reviewed.
