All options to be cogitated against India’s MFN move: PM advisor
- By Web Desk -
- Feb 17, 2019
ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister’s Advisor on Commerce Razak Dawood on Friday said Pakistan would consider all available choices to retaliate after the India’s decision to withdraw the status of Most Favoured Nation (MFN) for Pakistan, ARY News reported.
“Pakistan may revoke concessions to India under the South Asia Preferential Trade Agreement (SAPTA) and may also take up the issue in the World Trade Organisation,” Razak Dawood said while talking to media at the office of the Board of Investment.
New Delhi revoked its MFN status to Pakistan on Thursday, after the attack on Indian forces in Pulwama. The neighbouring country had granted this status to Islamabad in 1995.
MFN status is accorded by one state to another in international trade under the WTO. It means that a country will treat all WTO member states equally in matters of tariffs on imports.
Read More: RAW carried out attack on Indian army convoy: Rehman Malik
Indian Finance Minister Arun Jaitley announced the decision to withdraw the status while briefing the media in Delhi, reported NDTV.
He said that India will take all diplomatic measures to ensure complete isolation of Pakistan in the international community.
On February 14, at least 44 Indian soldiers were killed in a bomb attack on a paramilitary convoy in India-occupied Kashmir.
According to reports, one of the vehicles carrying soldiers was completely destroyed in the attack, while five other cars in the convoy of Indian forces were badly damaged.
Chairman Senate Standing Committee on Interior Senator Rehman Malik on Friday said the Indian spy agency executed the Pulwama attack in a bid to weaken Pakistan’s stance against its spy Kulbhushan Jadhav in the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
“The attack on the Indian army convoy in occupied Kashmir is a conspiracy to help Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi win the upcoming elections and deflect attention from the trial of the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) spy by kicking up anti-Pakistan hysteria,” the former interior minister said while addressing a press conference in Islamabad.