Pakistan will not backtrack: Hina Rabbani Khar on MFN status

MALDIVES: Noting that Indo-Pak ties are "complex" and "complicated", Pakistan Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar today said Islamabad is not backtracking on its decision to normalise bilateral trade with New Delhi of which Most Favoured Nation (MFN) status is a part.

Underlining that Pakistani military was an important stakeholder in the country's foreign policy, Khar said Indo-Pak relations should "not be bogged down" by the past.

"We want tomorrow to lead today rather than yesterday to define today and tomorrow," Khar told PTI in this picturesque city.

Asked about the confusing statements emerging from Pakistan about the MFN status being given to India, Khar, who is here for the SAARC summit, said emphatically, "We will not backtrack on a cabinet decision. So let me categorically say that and I don't see a lot of room for confusion."

Explaining the process, she said, "It (MFN status) wasn't on a negotiating table with India that Pakistan had committed to India and now Pakistan is backtracking."

"This was an internal process for Pakistan. And so basically I can tell you categorically that the cabinet gave its approval for normalisation of trade ties with India. Now this includes many things... normalisation of trade ties is a process which MFN is one of the many things in it," she said.

The minister argued that MFN is no status to be awarded to another country and is just a way to end non-discriminatory tariff regime between two countries.

Asked where she saw Indo-Pak ties going with the focus on trade getting prominence, Khar said, "I don't want to look at it from the lens of a singular focus. Because that would not be doing justice to the length and breadth of this relationship which is complex complicated."