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Islamabad: Taking a hard-line stance, a Pakistan Minister linked the improvement of trade relation with India to the resolution of the Kashmir issue much to the resentment of the business community in Islamabad.

"We are ready to hold talks with India on all the issues, including Kashmir and even on trade, culture, sports. However, before initiating trade talks, the political dialogue would have to start first to resolve core issues like Kashmir," Commerce Minister Humayun Akhtar told reporters on May 22.

"It is premature to say that we talk to resume trade," he said.

Referring to New Delhi's demand that Pakistan first accord India the Most Favoured Nation (MFN) status, he said under the World Trade Organisation (WTO) India had the "right to appeal against Pakistan" if it continued to block it.

However, Akhtar, son of a former Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) Chief, said India was the only country that Pakistan was trading with on the basis of a positive list since 1947. In this regard, he also referred to a positive list of 78 items as per the South Asian Preferential Treaty Agreement to the benefit of India.

But prominent Pakistani businessmen struck a discordant note over the government's policy to link trade and politics.

Former Chairman of All Pakistan Textile Mills Association and a former President of Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Tariq Saigol, said that the import of cheap goods from China was potentially more damaging to Pakistani industry than those from India.

PTI