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Arch-rival agree to allow mobile phone services(Flare (Pakistan) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Authorities have agreed to allow mobile phone services between Pakistan and India though certain issues remain to be settled, a Pakistani parliamentary panel has been informed by officials Zardari had reaffirmed in his speech that Pakistan “will continue to support the right of the people of Jammu & Kashmir to peacefully choose their destiny in accordance with the UN Security Council’s long-standing resolutions on this matter” Arch-rival Pakistan and India are going to restore mobile phone services in both sides. Pakistan wants to normalise the relation with India and benefit it economic, social policies but India always deceive the Pakistan and even did not solve Kashmir issue and water distribution, release the prisoners and much more. To hold cricket, kabbadi matches and given favourite nation status to India does not mean India to benefit Pakistan’s economy and trade. Authorities have agreed to allow mobile phone services between Pakistan and India though certain issues remain to be settled, a Pakistani parliamentary panel has been informed by officials. The Standing Committee on Commerce of the National Assembly or lower house of parliament was told by officials of the Ministry of Information Technology about the move to allow mobile phone services between the two countries. The panel expressed displeasure at the lack of modern communication facilities between the two sides. Commerce Secretary Munir Qureshi said the "main hitch is technical linkages between the telecom companies of India and Pakistan as they too have to get approvals from parent companies or their boards". Several members of the parliamentary committee said security concerns in both countries too were an obvious issue. The lawmaker Sheeren Arshad Khan said, "I have a sales outlet in Amritsar but one of the most serious problems is that we only have landline between India and Pakistan." The federal cabinet had approved India as the most favoured nation. The decision to grant MFN status to India essentially just means that Pakistan will no longer discriminate against India and treat it the same as it treats over 100 other countries. It does not mean an automatic removal of the barriers that currently exist to trade with India, though it makes removing them easier. Several members of Parliament, most notably National Assembly Opposition Leader Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan had opposed the move, citing Pakistan’s historical animosity to India due to the dispute over Kashmir. Yet the commerce ministry, specifically Commerce Secretary Zafar Mahmood, was careful to frame the discussion in terms of Pakistan simply meeting its treaty obligations and tried to keep the discussion in the economic realm. Representatives of Pakistan and India had a verbal duel in the UN General Assembly over the decades-old Jammu and Kashmir dispute between the two South Asian countries. Reacting to Indian External Affairs Minister SM Krishna’s assertion remarked by President Asif Ali Zardari remarks on Kashmir were “unwarranted”, Deputy Permanent Representative Raza Bashir Tarar defended the Pakistani leader’s statement as the dispute, he said, remained unresolved. “Let me begin by emphasizing that the reference to the Jammu and Kashmir dispute in the President of Pakistan’s statement was not ‘unwarranted’,” Ambassador Tarar said, while exercising his right of reply to the Indian minister’s statement, in which Krishna had also claimed that the Himalayan state was an “integral part” of India. “Let me also make it absolutely clear that Jammu and Kashmir is neither an integral part of India nor has it ever been,” the Pakistani envoy told the 193-member Assembly. Zardari had reaffirmed in his speech that Pakistan “will continue to support the right of the people of Jammu & Kashmir to peacefully choose their destiny in accordance with the UN Security Council’s long-standing resolutions on this matter”. Kashmir, he said, remained a symbol of the failures of the United Nations system rather than its strengths. The president went on to say that a solution could only be reached in an environment of cooperation. Indian delegate Vinay Kumar, responding to references by Ambassador Tarar of Pakistan, insisted that Jammu and Kashmir states were an integral part of India, adding that Pakistan’s “illegal occupation” of parts of the region was in violation of India’s territorial integrity and international law. India, he added, rejected Pakistan’s claim in its entirety. Exercising his right of reply for a second time, Ambassador Tarar said the disputed status of Jammu and Kashmir had been set out in Security Council resolutions and agreed upon by both Pakistan and India. Indian authorities have long viewed Hafiz Saeed, founder of Lashkar-i-Taiba, as the mastermind of the attacks in which 166 people were killed. In April the United States announced a $10 million reward for information leading to his arrest. Although Islamabad did not react to the charges on Friday, it previously has rejected Indian allegations of any involvement and said it has acted against the members of Lashkar-i-Taiba accused of mounting the raid. Home Minister P. Chidambaram told reporters that questioning of an Indian man suspected of helping plot the operation had revealed the existence of the control room and suggested it had state support. “Yes, others were also present and we think one of them was Hafiz Saeed,” Chidambaram said when asked if the group’s founder had been in the room at the time. Sayeed Zabiuddin Ansari, an alleged key plotter of the attacks, was arrested in New Delhi on June 21 as he arrived from Saudi Arabia. |