Lahore:
Hundreds of members of Pakistan's Jamaat-ud-Dawah (JuD), an Islamist charity linked to outlawed militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba, have been protesting in Lahore against the granting of Most Favoured Nation (MFN) trade status to India by the Pakistan government.
Pakistan's Cabinet unanimously decided earlier this month to grant India the MFN trade status, a major breakthrough that could bolster efforts to improve relations between the two nuclear-armed rivals. Trade has long been tied to political issues between the hostile neighbours, who have fought three wars since independence from Britain in 1947.
There are hopes that progress in trade ties will help boost a fragile peace process, which the two countries resumed in February, with political implications likely to outweigh any practical benefits.
"For the past 17 years, WTO and IMF and other international Jewish organisations, the slaves of America, and the United Nations which is also a servant of America, have been pressurising Islamabad rulers to grant India the Most Favoured Nation status. But all governments dodged the request. Some attached it to the Kashmir issue; some attached it to the plight of Muslims in India, while others attached it to the water dispute. But bravo to the present government of Zardari and Gilani, who took the decision overnight to please their friends," Abdul Rehman Makki, Vice Chief of Jud told the charged crowd.
The crowd later set an Indian flag on fire.
India broke off talks after the November 2008 attack on Mumbai by Pakistan-based militants that killed 166 people.
While India granted Pakistan MFN status in 1996, Pakistan hesitated.
Pakistani officials want New Delhi to remove non-trade barriers against Pakistan goods. Pakistan has long complained that Indian quality standards and customs procedures have hindered the flow of Pakistani goods into India.
Out Of the $1.4 billion in trade recorded in 2009/10, Indian exports to Pakistan stood at $1.2 billion while Pakistan exports to India totalled $268 million, according to official data.
The wider economic disparity is just as stark. Pakistan reported 2.4 percent growth in gross domestic product in the 20100-11 fiscal year while India reported 8.5 percent growth.
Since the 1960s, when Pakistan was an Asian tiger economy and India a basket case, India's economy has swelled to $1.06 trillion, more than eight times the size of Pakistan's $207 billion.
Trade ties were severed after the second war between the two countries in 1965 and have yet to recover fully.
But despite the challenges, the two now appear more keen to remove barriers to trade and the two countries' commerce ministries say trade could easily triple in three years.