Pak opposition seeks to sever trade ties with India

Cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan-led Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf has urged the government to immediately sever trade ties with India over the death of 13 people including three soldiers in alleged Indian firing along the Line of Control (LoC).

"Indian forces are killing innocent civilians and our army personnel along the LoC but our prime minister is fondly eating bananas being imported from India. It is high time we sever trade ties with India and unite on one platform to pat the enemy in the same coin," Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) Vice Chairman Shah Mehmood Qureshi said.

Qureshi said Defence Minister Khawaja Asif, who should have been at the border to defend the country, was defending Sharif in the Panamagate case in the apex court.

Qureshi, at a public meeting in Chhachhro town, said that the PML-N government "had no courage to respond to Indian prime minister's bluff and called for immediately severing trade ties with India", Dawn reported.

In Umerkot, he told journalists that despite Indian bombing along the LoC, the Sharif-led PML-N government had not broken trade ties with the "belligerent neighbour" and urged the UN to get its resolutions on Kashmir implemented, it reported.

He lashed out at the government for a lack of full-time foreign minister who was badly needed at the moment to fight the Kashmir case on world forums.

On Friday, Qureshi said that Pakistan had yet to respond to Indian aggression along the LoC.

The government had a weak foreign policy because of lack of a full-time foreign minister, he said.