Mansooruddin Faridi/New Delhi

The spring seems to be the beginning of a positive phase in the India-Pakistan relations as Pakistan is making preparations for reopening trade with India; to begin with, it seeks to import sugar, cotton, and yarn.

A Proposal from the Ministry of Commerce for the revival of trade will be considered for approval by the Economic Co-ordination Council (ECC) of Pakistan. The ministry had sent the proposals to the ECC with the permission of Prime Minister Imran Khan.

According to Pakistani media, the proposal is to import Indian goods through the Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP) and other commercial importers. At present, Indian exporters cannot participate in the tenders of TCP as per the government of India regulations.

Pakistan had snapped trade relations with India after the Narender Modi government has scrapped the special status of Jammu and Kashmir and made it into Union territory.

Pakistan’s economy is in the doldrums and particularly its textiles due to the crisis in cotton prices. Indian cotton comes at a far cheaper price than locally grown stuff. India’s yield per hectare is much higher than Pakistan’s due to improved seed quality.

The only way to bail out the textile industry is to import cotton bales and yarn from India; the industry leaders have been telling the government during television debates.

After the repeal of Article 370 in Kashmir, Pakistan hastily took this decision from India which has broken Pakistan's back in two years. Now the Pakistanis themselves have started moving to restore trade relations as the move itself had created a major crisis for Pakistan. According to Pakistani media, an important meeting in this regard will be held in Islamabad today in which the cabinet will seal it and also announce it.

This follows a series of warm though terse exchanges between India and Pakistan since the ceasefire on the Line of Control by the Indian and Pakistani armies.

It began with Army Chief General Qamar Bajwa seeking improvement in relations between Pakistan with all its neighbours including India.

On March 26, Pakistan day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi greeted the people of Pakistan in a letter and desired peace in the regions.

The letter has been duly acknowledged and reciprocated by Imran Khan.

Meanwhile, there is also a possibility of the Indo-Pak cricket relations getting revived through the proposed tri-country match of blind cricketers of India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh in Dhaka on April 2.

The proposal by the Ministry is to import cotton and yarn from India by June 30, 2021, through the route of land. The cotton imported from India will help the industry to cope with severe shortages.

In Dushanbe, though the foreign ministers S Jaishankar and Shah Mehmood Qureshi didn’t have a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the heart of Asia conference, the vibes between the two aboded well for the resumption of normal relations between their countries.

Mehmood Qureshi said “I felt the Indian Foreign Minister in his speech did not criticize Pakistan this time. Qureshi said that India did not point fingers at Pakistan as it used to do in the past, so at least I have noticed the change.”

However, the Dushanbe conference ended with a communique that all members countries have agreed to work together towards the dismantling of all terror sanctuaries.