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Amid political tensions, the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) will send a high-powered delegation to Pakistan in August to forge business ties.
"We want to smoke the peace pipe. It was during our last visit to the country with commerce minister (Anand Sharma) when some clarity was found on the MFN (most favoured nation) status for India. A delegation would be sent to Pakistan in August to carry forward these talks, at least on an industry level," Chandrajit Banerjee, director-general of CII, told Business Standard.
After a brief lull, India and Pakistan had resumed talks to normalise trade relations in April 2011. Pakistan had also committed to granting the MFN trade status to India by December 2012. India had granted MFN status to Pakistan in 1996.
Talks took a hit beating due to the killing of two Indian soldiers at the line of control (LoC) in January. Following this incident, the public mood in India turned against Pakistan. A Pakistani delegation had to retreat from the Vibrant Gujarat summit after the "not so warm welcome" by the Narendra Modi-led Gujarat government. Pakistan, on the other hand, did not take part in an investment summit organised by CII at Agra in January, where their commerce minister Makhdoom Amin Fahim was supposed to have a bilateral talk with Sharma.
For the , CII is in touch with the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry to finalise a date for the August meet.
The CII latest move comes on the backdrop of the Indian government's decision to scrap permission for an Indo-Pakistan hockey series on "security grounds".
Earlier this month, India had refused to grant visa to two Pakistan commerce ministry officials to attend the Asia Trade Promotion Forum at Agra.
