Pak delinks trade from J&K issue

Musharraf to keep his uniform

Marking a departure from its stand of linking improvement in trade ties with India to the resolution of Kashmir issue, Pakistan has said it could grant the "most favoured nation" status to India if New Delhi ensured a level-playing field by removing tariff and non-tariff barriers on Pakistan's finished goods.

Pakistan's Commerce Minister Humayun Akhtar Khan, who till recently insisted that Islamabad would consider prog-ress in trade ties if there was a progress in the dialogue process to resolve Kashmir issue, in an interview to The Nation today linked the granting of the "most favoured nation" status to India taking steps to remove tariff and non-tariff barriers imposed on Pakistan's exports.

To a question that if India removed its tariff and non-tariff barriers would Pakistan grant it the "most favoured nation" status, Khan said: "Yes. My position is clear and the study group aims to see what needs to be changed in the Indian tariff regime for us to consider the most favoured nation status for it."

He said Pakistan wanted to see the outcome of the business study group headed by the commerce secretaries of both the countries, appointed last week after Khan's meeting with Commerce Minister Kamal Nath.

"First we want to see steps from New Delhi related to tariff peaks before we give the most favoured nation status to India. The study group aims to see how both the countries could benefit from enhancing bilateral trade," he said.

"New Delhi had given us the most favoured nation status but still the trade balance is in favour of India. India can send items included under the positive list to Pakistan and it shows that there is problem due to which Pakistan's exports are not increasing to India." In view of this, Pakistan felt that there should be a level-playing field before it opened to India, he said.

Khan said during his recent visit, Nath again asked for grant of the most favoured nation status. "We told the commerce minister that we need to study India's trade regime so that there is a level-playing field and there is a kind of equalisation. Pakistan wants to look at para tariffs and the non-tariff barriers. We still feel there is considerable number of tariff peaks in the Indian tariff regime," he said.

"We are primarily interested to boost our textile-related exports and we want to tackle the issue of tariff peaks first before giving them the most favoured nation status," he added.

His comments followed even as the two countries postponed the expert-level trade talks scheduled in New Delhi on December 9 and 10. No fresh dates have been announced.

In other significant development, Pakistan's acting President Muhammad Soomro today signed into law a controversial Bill allowing General Pervez Musharraf to hold the dual posts of the President and the army chief beyond this year despite his pledge to shed the uniform.

The Bill, earlier passed by Parliament, was signed by Soomro, also the Senate chairman holding the post of the acting President in the absence of Musharraf, Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said.

The law has cleared the way for Musharraf to hold both the offices at least till 2007, when the term of his presidency ends. It does not mention any timeframe for him to shed the uniform.

Meanwhile, the Opposition have questioned Soomro's authority to sign such an important Bill.

Apparently, Musharraf was apprehensive of signing the Bill himself after he was advised about the legal problems as the Pakistan Constitution stipulated that the President should not sign any order that solely benefited him.

Though Musharraf himself has not yet formally said that he would continue to retain uniform beyond December 31, the date he set last year to relinquish the post of the army chief, Rashid said the President would continue in both the offices despite the agitation by the Opposition parties demanding that the General should stick to his word.

"The President will continue to hold both the offices beyond this year. I have been saying this all along," Rashid said.

Later, he told the official media that "after the signing of the Bill, the process of the President holding the two offices has been completed."

Rashid also rejected the Opposition parties' argument that the acting President was not authorised to sign the Bill.