Pakistan gives transit facility to India

Islamabad -- India has been allowed by Pakistan to use the Karachi port for trading with Afghanistan.

According to foreign office spokesperson Tasneem Aslam, Afghanistan will also be able to export items to India through Pakistani territory.

Visiting India last week for the Second Regional Economic Cooperation Conference on Afghanistan, Kabul's Foreign Minister Rangin Dafdar Spanta had said that Pakistan would soon provide India with transit trade facilities to Afghanistan.

Analysts say because of the unstable India-Pakistan relations, Islamabad has allowed India transit facility to Afghanistan only on a case-to-case basis while ensuring that Indian exports to Afghanistan do not hit its commercial interests.

Indian wheat was transported through Pakistan to Afghanistan during the Taliban regime.

India has for long demanded that Pakistan allow the use of the Wagah border in Punjab for trade while Pakistan wants India to trade through the Karachi port.