Seizure of commercial consignment: Pakistan condemns India’s high- handedness

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Saturday strongly condemned India’s high handedness in seizure of commercial goods by a Karachi based commercial entity which supplies parts to the automobile industry in the country.

Responding to media queries regarding Indian seizure of commercial equipment destined for Pakistan, Foreign Office spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch, these reports are reflective of Indian media’s habitual misrepresentation of facts. She added that this is a simple case of import of a commercial lathe machine by a Karachi based commercial entity which supplies parts to the automobile industry in Pakistan.

“Specifications of the equipment clearly indicate its purely commercial use. The transaction was being conducted through transparent banking channels with all the relevant documentation,” she said.

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She said that the relevant private entities are pursuing the matter against this unjustified seizure. “Pakistan condemns India’s high handedness in seizure of commercial goods. This disruption of free trade underscores the dangers inherent in arbitrary assumption of policing roles by states with dubious credentials,” she added.

Baloch further stated that such acts also highlight the growing impunity of certain states in violating international norms and taking arbitrary measures in violation of international law.

Earlier, Indian media claimed that the country’s security agencies stopped a Pakistan-bound ship from China at Mumbai’s Nhava Sheva port over “suspicions” that it contained ‘dual-use consignment’ that could be used by Islamabad in its nuclear and ballistics missile programme.

The Indian customs officials reportedly stopped a Malta-flagged merchant ship, CMA CGM Attila, en route to Karachi on January 23 at the port and inspected the consignment which included a “Computer Numerical control machine” by an Italian company.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2024