Islamabad, Aug 4: Pakistan has allowed two of its banks to open branches in India as part of renewed efforts to push for a peace settlement between the two neigbours which have fought three wars in a little more than sixty years.
State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) governor Yasin Anwar told the media that National Bank of Pakistan and United Bank Ltd have been given the “green signal” to operate in India, wire agency PTI reported from Islamabad.
Anwar said the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had been appraised of SBP’s decision to allow the two Pakistani banks to explore opportunities in India.
SPB’s move follows a decision by the Indian government on Wednesday to allow investments from Pakistan in all sectors except defence, space and atomic energy in the country.
Both the countries are channeling their efforts into “trade diplomacy” in a bid to build enough trust to tackle the more troublesome issues that divide them, such as Kashmir.
However separatists in Kashmir, a region which has witnessed more than two decades of anti-India conflict but where peace is gaining roots now, have been accusing Pakistan of diluting its stand on Kashmir to gain from economic ties with India.
Although various quarters of Pakistan have been reiterating their moral and diplomatic support to Kashmir against India, many feel that growing mutual economic ties between the two neighbours could push problems of the Himalayan valley into oblivion.
Trade between India and Pakistan is worth a little more than $2 billion and the two sides have agreed to increase it to $6 billion by 2014.
