Islamabad: Pakistan’s Federal Minister for Commerce Makhdoom Amin Fahim has postponed a scheduled visit to India later this month after the orders from Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf amid the latest conflict between the two neighbours.
Fahim and Commerce Secretary Munir Qureshi were scheduled to visit India during January 27-29 to participate in a Partnership Summit being organised in Agra.
The Pakistani minister was invited to the meet by his Indian counterpart Anand Sharma.
The minister told media that he put off the visit as the business meet would clash with an upcoming meeting between a government team and Canadian-Pakistani cleric Tahir-ul-Qadri, who had led a massive protest against the ruling Pakistan People’s Party last week, demanding electoral reforms.
He said that as one of the signatories of the agreement between the government and Qadri, he had to attend the meeting to be held in Lahore on January 27 to discuss the cleric’s demands.
But official sources said that Fahim postponed the visit on the orders of PM Ashraf over political unrest between the two countries after soldiers killings along the LoC in Jammu and Kashmir.
In recent weeks, differences had emerged between Fahim and Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar over the issue of giving Most Favoured Nation (MFN) status to India, PTI reported.
Reports said that Khar held Fahim responsible for the delay in giving MFN status to India.
Pakistan missed the December 31 deadline for phasing out a negative list regime for trade and giving the status to India.
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