Backtracking on granting most favoured nation (MFN) status to India, Pakistan Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani has said the commerce ministry has only been tasked by the Cabinet to move forward on the issue in bilateral trade negotiations.
His statement came three days after Pakistan information minister Firdous Awan announced following a Cabinet meeting that it has been decided “unanimously” to grant most favoured nation status to India. Pakistan had been dilly-dallying on the issue since 1996 when India granted it MFN status.
Since Wednesday’s announcement by Ms Awan, right-wing extremists in Pakistan and business lobbies in the country’s crucial Punjab province have been vehemently opposing the decision. The business lobbies dealing with engineering and pharmaceutical products are of the view that granting of MFN status to India would be detrimental to their business interests.
“The Cabinet has only given its approval in principle to move forward on the issue (of most favoured nation) and permitted the ministry of commerce, which is actively engaged in trade talks with New Delhi, to negotiate with it trade-related issues,” Mr Gilani told reporters at his residence in Lahore.
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U.S. general sacked for Karzai remarks
Katherine Haddon
Kabul, Nov. 5
A United States general in Afghanistan has been sacked after accusing leaders, including President Hamid Karzai, of being out of touch and ungrateful for American support, officials said.
Major General Peter Fuller, who was deputy commander of Nato’s mission to train and equip Afghan forces, had been dismissed after making “inappropriate public comments”, the Nato-led international force said late on Friday.
In an interview published by news website Politico on Thursday, Major General Fuller said Afghan leaders did not fully recognise the human and financial cost borne by the United States in Afghanistan and were “isolated from reality”.
— AFP