New Delhi

The proverbial slip between cup and the lip happened today in the India-Pakistan relationship as the Imran Khan government today rejected the recommendations of an apex advisory body to purchase sugar and cotton from India.

The Pakistani cabinet has decided not to accept the recommendations of the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Finance Ministry. The detailed plan of imports was prepared by the Ministry of commerce.

The decision of the cabinet to reject the imports proposal was reported by GeoTv quoting sources as there was no official announcement of the cabinet decision.

The report claimed Khan told the cabinet that Pakistan political climate was not conducive to being friendly with India and directed the government to buy sugar from other sources at cheaper prices.

Imran Khan had received plenty of bashing from political rivals, mainly Pakistan Muslim League (N) soon after his newly appointed finance minister Haamad Azhar had announced Pakistan will import 5 lakh metric tones of sugar immediately and cotton from India by June.

PML(N) leaders have started taunting him on why he was trying to make friends with India while in his election campaign and later, he (Khan) had blamed Nawaz Sharif for being a “Friend of Modi.”

Hawks among Pakistani analysts have been blaming the Khan government and also the Pakistan Army for bowing to the designs of India and giving up “the pet cause of Pakistan.”

Army Chief General Qamar Bajwa Bajwa’s remarks that it's the right time to forget the past and usher in cooperation in the region is seen by the hawks as an announcement to “bury the Kashmir issue.”

Pakistan had unilaterally suspended trade with India following the abrogation of the special status of Jammu and Kashmir by the Narendra Modi government in August 2019. However, following acute shortages of life-saving drugs, the ban on import of drugs were lifted immediately.

Pakistan is the only South Asian country that didn’t receive a direct free gift of COVID vaccines from India. However, the economic crisis in Pakistan seems to have forced the Imran Khan government to change its strategy.

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.