A crucial meeting, which was to have been chaired by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi yesterday to review the Most Favoured Nation (MFN) status to Pakistan, has been postponed to next week.
The decision to review the MFN status had come in the wake of the deadly terror attack, blamed by India on Pakistan, on an Indian army camp in Jammu and Kashmir camp on September 18 which left 18 troops dead.
After the attack, India has been weighing various options to isolate Pakistan, including reviewing the MFN status and the Indus river water-sharing treaty of 1960 with Pakistan.
Officials from Commerce and External Affairs ministries were to have attended yesterday's meeting on MFN status.
India granted MFN status to Pakistan in 1996 but the latter is yet to reciprocate.
According to sources, next week's meeting's may discuss the option of India dragging Pakistan to the World Trade Organisation's (WTO) dispute settlement mechanism for not according similar status to India.
Under MFN, a WTO member country is obliged to treat other trading nation in a non-discriminatory manner, especially with regard to customs duty and other levies.
In 2015-16, India's exports to Pakistan stood at $2.17 billion, while imports were $441 million.
Instead of holding the MFN meeting, Modi yesterday presided a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Security on the prevailing tense situation along the de facto border with Pakistan. It was attended, among others, by Defence and Home Ministers Manohar Parrikar and Rajnath Singh, Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar and army chief Gen Dalbir Singh Suhag.