Karachi: Asserting that SAARC's (South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation) progress should not be held hostage to Indo-Pak ties, India today (Dec 7, 2004) said the South Asian Free Trade Area (SAFTA) offered Pakistan a way to trade with it in a "relatively normal way", if Islamabad finds it difficult to extend the Most Favoured Nation (MFN) status to it.

"I have heard the argument that India-Pakistan relations have somehow held SAARC hostage. I fail to see why this should be so unless a member state chooses to make it so and uses the principle of decisions by unanimity to get its way," Indian High Commissioner to Pakistan, Shivshankar Menon, said addressing a seminar on 'Achievements, Failures and Future Prospects of SAARC' in Karachi.

He said India never made progress of SAARC conditional to resolving problems relating to issues among the member States, and SAFTA offered a way out for Pakistan to normalise trade relations with India.

"India certainly does not make progress in SAARC conditional on the levels of our bilateral relationships. If anything, we see these as complementary.

"For instance, SAFTA offers Pakistan a way to trade with India in a relatively normal way, outside the fetters of the present positive list system in force in Pakistan, if for some psychological reason she finds it difficult to extend MFN treatment like India gives to Pakistan, or even a partial opening," Menon said.

In an obvious reference to oft-repeated assertions by Pakistani leaders that political issues between India and Pakistan affected the SAARC's progress, he said such an argument was a big myth.