Following the reports of an exchange of goods between Pakistan and Israel, the Foreign Office (FO) and Ministry of Trade and Commerce on Sunday denied all rumors of having any trade with the middle-eastern nation.
The American Jewish Congress (AJC) had claimed that a bilateral trade occurred with the offloading of the first shipment carrying Pakistani-originated food products in Israel.
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Issuing a clarification over the purported trade, FO spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch said that Pakistan does not have diplomatic or trade relations with Israel.
“There is no change in the policy,” she said.
Spokesperson for the Ministry of Commerce said that the American Jewish Congress press release was wrongly attributed as it does not make any mention of Pakistan’s official trade relations with Israel.
“Rumours about beginning of Pakistan-Israel trade are pure propaganda. We neither have nor do we intend to start trade relations with Israel,” the spokesperson said.
Remember that on 30th March 2023, the American Jewish Congress released a statement on “trade between the State of Israel and Pakistan” claiming that the first shipment from the country had been received in Israel.
“This week, the first shipment of Pakistan-origin food products was offloaded in Israel, in a transaction that involved Pakistani-Jewish businessman Fishel Benkhald, based in Pakistan’s business hub of Karachi, and three Israeli businessmen from Jerusalem and Haifa,” the statement read.
It also stated that the alleged trade was widely reported by both Pakistani and international media.
The AJC had stated that the two nations didn’t have diplomatic ties yet but their entrepreneurs and technologists “have forged ahead in pursuit of common prosperity”.
“Thanks to this initiative [alleged first trade] eighteen years ago, constraints and licenses that restricted Israel-Pakistan trade were abolished,” it added.
