Pak may decide on MFN status to India after elections: Dobbins

WASHINGTON: The US special representative for Pakistan and Afghanistan, James Dobbins, has said that Islamabad may decide to grant Most Favoured Nation (MFN) status to India after the elections in neighbouring country.

The Obama Administration has been raising the issue with the new Nawaz Sharif government to grant MFN status to India as soon as possible.

"We have raised this with the government of Pakistan on several occasions and, indeed, with the government of India, specifically the grant of most favoured nations. It came up while (Pakistan) Prime Minister Sharif was here in Washington during a visit a month ago," Dobbins told lawmakers.

"The Pakistanis have indicated their intention is to provide, is to grant MFN to India. The question is one of timing. We, of course, have urged it to be done as quickly as possible," he said in response to a question at a hearing on Afghanistan by the House Foreign Affairs Committee yesterday.

"They didn't say so, but I think they may be waiting until a new Indian government takes office. They probably want to do this in the part of a context of other improvements in the relationship," he said.

"MFN for India would be a positive step and, indeed, a general opening of the border to more commerce would also be very helpful for Afghanistan as you've indicated and for all those reasons we continue to support it," he said.

India had given MFN status to Pakistan in 1996.