Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif told the media in The Hague on Monday that Pakistan had postponed giving India the Most Favoured Nation (MFN) status, according to news reports.
Speaking to the media on the sidelines of the third International Nuclear Security Summit, Mr. Sharif said there was no consensus on granting India MFN and he had asked all the stakeholders to discuss the matter. Last week on Friday the federal cabinet was slated to meet and approve MFN or non discriminatory market access(NDMA) to India but the cabinet meeting was not held.
There has been opposition from various quarters on giving India this status and farmers had planned an agitation at the Wagah border from March 31 in protest. Farmers groups felt they would be at a disadvantage as India had subsidies for agriculture. The Prime Minister was quoted as saying in the news report that the granting of MFN was postponed because of the forthcoming general elections in India and Pakistan did not want to favour any one political party.
