Pak denies opening Afghan trade route for India

Islamabad, Sep 17: Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi has dismissed reports that Islamabad has expressed readiness to talk on restoring the India-Afghanistan trade route through its territory.

“Pakistan has not agreed to consider Afghanistan-India trade through our land,” the Foreign Office said on Sunday, quoting Qureshi.

According to a report by the Express Tribune, the rejection came after US Ambassador to Afghanistan John Bass said that Pakistan was considering resumption of India-Afghanistan trade via its territory.

“Pakistan had already approached Afghanistan earlier this year and indicated its willingness to resume trade between Afghanistan and India through its land,” Bass had said in an interview to an Indian daily last week.

The Express Tribune called the revelation “significant” as according to it Pakistan “did not allow Indian goods to be transported through its territory into Afghanistan”.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Kashmir Monitor staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)