Lahore: Federal Commerce Minister Khurram Dastgir Khan on Wednesday ruled out trade with India “unless diplomatic relations” improve between the two neighbouring countries.
At a seminar entitled “Engineers: the complete solution provider,” hosted by the Institution of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Pakistan, he said Pakistan had neither any dialogue nor any progress was made on trade with India since 2014.
He said Adviser to Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs and National Security Sartaj Aziz would visit India for security talks on Aug 23 and hoped that diplomatic relations with Delhi would improve as a result of the visit. If so, the trade ties between the two countries could also improve correspondingly, he added.
On the issue of energy crisis and the role Kalabagh dam could play to overcome it, he stressed the need for developing a consensus on the “technical aspects of the dam, because it was being opposed by three federating units on political and technical grounds”.
“It is time to take up and resolve technical issues related to the dam. How much water is available for the dam and which city, if any, would submerge with its construction. Once technical issues are resolved, it would be much easier to develop (so far) elusive political consensus on it,” he said.
He said since three provincial assemblies have passed resolutions against the dam, it would not be wise to build it without political consensus. There were always more than one ways to deal with a crisis, he said, adding that the energy crisis of Pakistan also should have multiple solutions. Though Kalabagh dam was crucial, it was one of the many options available to the country, he said, adding that was why the PML-N government was working on other options – Dasu and Bhasha dams.
“The government is working on generation of electricity which is cost effective,” he claimed.
In the end, he pledged his support to the community of engineers and promised to help solve their problems.
