Made in Pakistan: India refuses to allow goods trade across LoC

TADA officials urges Indian authorities to resume trade for a short span of time so that traders can clear their dues.

MUZAFFARABAD: Security officials of the Indian administered Kashmir on Thursday refused to allow trade of Pakistani goods on the Line of control (LoC), sources in the state administration told The Express Tribune.

According to officials, a two-member delegation of the Azad Jammu and Kashmir Travel and Trade Authority (TADA) headed by its Director General Brig (retd) Muhammad Ismali and Trade Facilitation Officer (TFO) Basharat Iqbal met with their counterparts on Chakothi Bridge linking the divided parts of the Himalayan state, some 60 kilometers from Muzaffarabad.

The two-member team from Indian side of Kashmir told their AJK counterparts that they have to follow the Indian government and Indian commerce ministry’s orders which do not allow them to receive ‘Made in Pakistan’ goods through the LoC.

Sources further revealed that the AJK team tried their best to convince their Indian counterparts that trade items were being bought from Pakistan by Kashmiris settled in Pakistan’s urban centres.

TADA officials urged the Indian authorities to resume trade for a short span of time so that hundreds of traders across the LoC could clear their dues with each other, according to an official, who added that dues of over Rs200 million across the LoC are pending.

The Intra-Kashmir Trade Union Secretary Information Shaukat Hussain told The Express Tribune that trade across the LoC was one of the main confidence building measures signed between the two countries to promote the peace process in South Asia.

“Indian conditions to exclude the Pakistani goods from LoC trade list is a ploy to end trade which will be a setback to the peace efforts between the two parts of Kashmir,” Hussain added.