No decision taken to scrap bilateral deals with India: Pakistan's Foreign Minister

Islamabad: No decision has yet been taken to scrap bilateral agreements with India, Pakistan's foreign ministry said a day after defence minister Khawaja Asif claimed that the 1972 Simla Agreement had lost its sanctity, according to a media report.

Following India's punitive measures against Pakistan after the Pahalgam terror attack, Pakistan had only threatened to terminate the Simla agreement. But there was no subsequent move to cancel the historic pact. A senior Foreign Office official told the Express Tribune newspaper that while India's recent actions and statements prompted internal discussions, Pakistan had made no formal or conclusive move to annul any of its bilateral accords with New Delhi.

"At present, there is no formal decision to terminate any bilateral accord," the official stated, indicating that the existing bilateral agreements, including the Simla Agreement, remain in effect.


The clarification came a day after defence minister Khawaja Asif, during an interview with a private television channel, said the Simla Agreement had lost its relevance and validity due to India's recent "unilateral actions". "The Simla Agreement is now a dead document. We are back to the 1948 position, when the United Nations declared the Line of Control a ceasefire line following the ceasefire and resolutions," Asif said.