Islamabad, December 21: The hard-line stance struck by Pakistan`s new commerce minister, Humayun Akhtar, ruling out granting Most Favoured Nation (MFN) status to India until the latter settled for talks on Kashmir has not gone well with European Union countries. The "whistle blowers" of Europe were not impressed with Pakistan linking the grant of MFN status to India with the talks on resolving the Kashmir issue, Pakistan daily the news said yesterday.
EU was initially very appreciative of stand taken by Pakistan Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali for his "maiden" offer to begin talks with India, the report said adding that the EU countries now believe that Akhtar`s repeated statement that normalisation of trade relations with India was not possible without progress on talks on Kashmir, has further vitiated the relations between the two countries.
Akhtar however, continued to stand by his hard-line stand.
"Since India is not ready to talk on any issue how can we initiate trade dialogue with India in isolation,” Akhtar was quoted as saying by ‘The News’ website.

Bureau Report