Pakistan cabinet rejects proposal to import sugar, cotton from India

In less than 24 hours, after announcing the resumption of trade ties with India, the Pakistan Cabinet on Thursday put the decision on hold until India ‘reverses its decision on Article 370’.

The Imran Khan Cabinet deferred the Economic Coordination Committee’s decision to allow import of sugar, cotton and cotton yarn from India through land and sea routes, Pakistan’s leading English Daily ‘The Dawn’ reported.

The decision to restore trade ties was viewed as a confidence-building measure following the Indo-Pak decision to agree to a ceasefire along the LoC and international border.


“Today Cabinet stated clearly NO trade with India,” Pakistan’s human rights minister Shireen Mazari tweeted.

She said Prime Minister Imran Khan had made it clear that “there can be no normalisation of relations with India until they reverse their illegal actions” regarding Kashmir taken on August 5, 2019.

Earlier in the day, Mazari had stated that all ECC decisions “have to be approved by the federal cabinet”.

Pakistan finance minister Hammad Azhar had on Wednesday announced restoration of trade ties with India, stating that the price of sugar in India was “significantly cheaper than Pakistan; therefore, we have decided to open its trade and allow commercial import of 500,000 tonnes of white sugar”.