Announcement on cross-LoC trade likely in New York: report

Islamabad, Sept 24 (PTI) India and Pakistan are likely to
announce the launch of cross-Line of Control trade after the
meeting between Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and
Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari on the sidelines of the
U.N. General Assembly in New York.

The issue will be high on the agenda of talks between the
two leaders in their first meeting, a media report said
Wednesday.

The schedule and other details of a cross-LoC trade
agreement reached between the two sides at a meeting in New
Delhi this week would be reflected in a joint statement to be
issued after the Zardari-Singh meeting, sources told The News
daily.

A meeting of the joint working group on cross-LoC
confidence-building measures held on Monday had finalised
modalities for trade between the two parts of Kashmir.
However, details of the agreement were not revealed by both
countries.

The leader of the Pakistani delegation at the talks,
Additional Secretary (South Asia) Aizaz Ahmed Chaudhry told
journalists that the trade list too had been finalised. The
list for zero-tariff regime includes around 20 items for
two-way trade.

Chaudhry, who is Pakistan's point man on India, has
reached New York for consultations ahead of the Zardari-Singh
meeting.

Pakistani officials believe the upcoming meeting between
the two leaders will help improve the pace of the peace
process, which was hit by the July 7 suicide bombing of the
Indian embassy in Kabul. India had blamed Pakistan's spy
agency ISI of being involved in the attack that killed some 60
people.

The upcoming meeting is expected to be "much better" than
the one between Prime Minister Singh and Prime Minister Yousuf
Raza Gilani in Colombo last month, which according to insiders
were "very tense".

A Pakistani official who participated in the
Kashmir-related talks in New Delhi said it was decided that
the chairman of the Chamber of Commerce of Pakistan-occupied
Kashmir would lead a delegation to Srinagar and Jammu for
talks on the modalities in the third week of October.

There are indications that a date in the second half of
October or early November is likely to be set for opening
trade routes, including the Muzaffarabad-Srinagar and
Rawlakot-Poonch routes.

India had recently informed Pakistan that it was ready to
launch cross-LoC trade from October one. This prompted a
flurry of activity by Pakistan to kick start the trade between
the two parts of Kashmir.

The move comes in the wake of several allegations of
violations of the ceasefire along the LoC and widespread
protests in Jammu and Kashmir.

In his maiden address to the Parliament on September 20,
President Zardari had said that Pakistan intended to launch
cross-LoC trade as a pioneering confidence-building measure.

The starting of the trade would be the second major
Kashmir-related confidence-building measure since the launch
of the trans-LoC bus service in April 2005 to facilitate
contacts between divided Kashmiri families.

The two countries also opened five crossing points along
the LoC in October 2005. However, only three meeting points
are now operational. PTI RHL
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