This is apropos to a news item appeared in Business Recorder regarding denouncement of Pak-Afghan Transit Trade Agreement (APTTA). The headline of the story was somewhat misleading. The agreement of both the parties that the APTTA accord may be denounced by either of the contracting parties after one year from the date of entry into force, if either of the two parties was willing to do so, was part of the Agreement since beginning.
This is not a new development in the Agreement, which is somehow conveyed in the news story.
BR staff reporter MUSHTAQ GHUMMAN adds: Commerce Ministry, in its clarification has acknowledged that what is written in the story is accurate. However, a number of top officials of the MoC are completely ignorant about the APTTA to be signed by the Commerce Ministry.
In fact, Commerce Ministry which neither consulted the provincial governments, nor trade bodies, is now making efforts to defend the agreement concluded under considerable pressure from the United States. Almost every key chamber is issuing statements against the APTTA as they believe that their interests are being compromised by the MoC. Recently, Prime Minister Secretariat also questioned MoC for not taking provincial governments into confidence.