Islamabad: Pakistan has not backtracked on the issue of giving India Most Favoured Nation-status and officials of the two countries will work out modalities for normalising bilateral trade relations, Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar said on Saturday.
"There is an impression in the media that Pakistan made a decision (on MFN) and then backtracked. This is totally wrong. I want to tell you that we are consistent," Khar told reporters during an interaction in the eastern city of Lahore.
"We are absolutely not backtracking (on MFN). Pakistan is a responsible state and decision-making happens within a responsible environment," she said.
The federal cabinet "unanimously approved" a move to normalise trade relations with India during a meeting on Wednesday and "MFN is part of the normalisation of trade ties", she said.
This process of normalisation of trade relations will be handled by the Commerce Ministry in upcoming talks with India, she added.
The Commerce Secretaries of the two sides are scheduled to meet in New Delhi later this month.
Khar's comments came against the backdrop of a flip-flop by Pakistan on the MFN issue.
Information Minister Firdous Awan announced on Wednesday that the cabinet had approved a move to give India MFN-status while the Foreign Ministry later clarified that both countries would work towards this goal in future engagements.
Khar contended that giving India MFN-status did not amount to a "conferment or a notification or an award".
MFN is an "important component" of the normalisation of bilateral trade relations, she said.
Since talks between the Commerce Secretaries of the two countries resumed earlier this year, Pakistan has said it has "no objection" to giving MFN-status to India, Khar said.
At the same time, she sought to link the MFN issue to the removal of a discriminatory trade regime and non-tariff barriers by India.
"When a discriminatory tariff regime no longer exists, they will get MFN- status. It's part of a process," Khar said.
Islamabad is hopeful that there will be forward movement on the part of both countries, she added.
Khar said there had been some "tangible outcomes" since India and Pakistan resumed their stalled dialogue process earlier this year.
"We can see there is a constructive engagement. We have repeatedly said that we want this dialogue process to be result-oriented (as well as) uninterrupted and uninterruptible," she said.
Some of the tangible outcomes were India's support for Pakistan in elections to a non-permanent seat in the UN Security Council and its decision not to stand in the way of preferential market access given to Pakistan by the European Union, Khar said.
"This is a new tradition and it's a good tradition. It's good for the region and our country," she added.
In response to a question on US drone strikes within Pakistan, Khar said Islamabad s position in this regard was "clear and consistent".
The drone attacks were "at best counterproductive" and "uncalled for".
"This is something which inhibits us, inhibits the war that we're trying to fight and inhibits Pakistan's efforts... In principle, we are against (drone strikes being) used as a policy tool," Khar said.
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