Pak, India sign shipping protocol

NEW DELHI—India and Pakistan today inked a Protocol on Shipping Services enabling the private shipping companies of the two countries to lift the cargo for the third country besides jacking up trade volume between the two sides.
The Protocol was signed here Thursday evening at a simple ceremony by Pakistan’s Federal Minister for Ports and Shipping Babar Khan Ghauri and Indian Minister of Shipping, Road, Transport and Highways T R Baalu.
The Protocol will come into force on the date of signing and will replace the “Protocol on resumption of shipping services between Pakistan and India”, singed on January 15, 1975. The shipping services between the countries were being resumed after lapse of over thirty years, Ghauri said adding it was major step forward.
Talking to the media persons after signing ceremony, Minister for Ports and Shipping Babar Khan Ghauri said the protocol would help increase trade to two billion dollars this year between the two sides. In response to a question about resumption of Ferry Service between Mumbai and Karachi, Ghauri said he discussed this issue with his Indian counterpart. A comprehensive proposal in this regard, he said would be given to India.
The Indian side is expected to positively consider that proposal for taking decision to revive the Ferry service, which had existed between the two countries before 1965, he said adding, four private shipping companies were granted licenses for operation in the ferry services.
Billing the inking of Protocol as major step forward between the two countries, Pakistan’s Minister exuded confidence that other bilateral issues would also be resolved in the same spirit. The Minister said Pakistan’s President Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz were keen to resolve all the issues between the two countries through negotiation adding, Pakistani leadership moved forward an extra mile in that direction.—Agencies