Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar has said that the trade situation and economic activities with India “require consultation”, citing that the business community in the past has raised high freight costs due to the ban on trade with the neighbouring country.

He said this in response to a query after addressing a press conference in London on Saturday. According to him, the same question was raised to him in Brussels.

Pakistan downgraded diplomatic relations with India and suspended all bilateral trade in August 2019, when the Narendra Modi-led government revoked occupied Kashmir’s special status, granted in its law, by repealing Article 370 of its constitution.

PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif after his return to Pakistan last year had called for improving relationships with Pakistan’s neighbours, including India and Afghanistan.

In his response, the foreign minister described the August 2019 move by India as an “extreme step” and “very painful”.

Dar, the former finance minister, also stated that the business community often made appeals and demands with regard to the trade situation with India.

“Everyone’s appeal was the same — that our imports, which are still ongoing, arrive via Dubai or Singapore, [resulting in] extra freight, extra transhipment, transportation costs, etc,” he said while speaking about his discussions with the community before the budget.

“So we will seriously examine this. All of us stakeholders will sit together and see whether we can […] at least to the extent of economic activities and trade. We will see what can be done about it. But I cannot give you a ‘yes or no’ answer because it requires consultation.”