23 June 2001

PAK MAY BE ALLOWED TO REOPEN MUMBAI CONSULATE

From Our Delhi Bureau

NEW DELHI: The Indo-Pak summit may lead to reopening of the Karachi and Mumbai consulates, increase of bilateral trade and formulation of an arrangement to prevent unnecessary imprisonment of fishermen straying into each other country's territories since there was no boundary in the sea.

The Pakistan Government had closed down the Indian consulate in Karachi several years ago for security reasons and that was followed up by India shutting the Pak consulate in Mumbai.

The unofficial trade between India through smuggling and via third countries is estimated to be five times more than the official-level trade of about $200 million and India is keen that Pakistan should allow import of more items from India to discourage the illegal trade.

Preparations for the Indo-Pak summit geared up with Indian High Commissioner Nambiar returning to Pakistan and holding a lengthy meeting on the bilateral trade issues with Federal Minister for Commerce, Industries Abdul Razak Dawood on Friday, urging him to grant to India the Most Favoured Nation (MFN) nation for facilitating imports from India. India has already granted MFN status to Pakistan to meet the World Trade Organisation regime.

The Commerce Minister reportedly promised that the issue would be reviewed after the consultations with all the relevant before taking any decision. Pakistani daily "The News" quoted official sources disclose that the final decision in this regard is likely to be taken after the Indo-Pak summit. in New Delhi.

Nambiar's meeting with Dawood also resulted in Pakistan agree to India's proposal to make a joint strategy for the upcoming meeting of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) ministerial meeting to be held in Qatar in November. In this regard, it was decided that meeting between the officials of both the countries would be held after the Pak-India summit to evolve a joint strategy for the WTO ministerial meeting. The meeting may be held in Islamabad.

PERVEZ-POLITICIANS MEET ON 27TH: Meanwhile, an official announcement in Islamabad said Pakistan President General Pervez Musharraf has invited politicians representing all leading political parties for a consultative meeting next Wednesday to consult them prior to his visit to India.

The Indian High Commissioner is supposed to return to Delhi to be available for the 3-day summit and as such he would be busy in the coming days discussing with the Pakistani ministers and officials the issues that can be raised during the talks between Musharraf and Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in Agra. Before coming to Delhi last week, Nambiar had also held lengthy deliberations with Interior Minister Lt Gen. (retired) Moinuddin Haider in which the issue of fishermen had also figured.

In his meeting with the Pakistani commerce minister, Nambiar stressed that India was looking forward to "enhance economic co-operation" with Pakistan. He is reported to have also reiterated the demand of the Indian business community to expand a list of 600 items to be imported from India under the SAPTA (South Asian Preferential Trade Agreement) under the banner of South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC). END