KARACHI, May 8: Indian Commercial Counsellor Vipin Handa on Wednesday called for better trade relations between India and Pakistan.

This he said while talking to industrialists at SITE Association of Industry during his visit. He said due to proximity of business climate, the trade relations between the two countries should improve.

He also called for better relations between the two governments as well as businessmen.

Handa invited businessmen to send their trade queries to Indian High Commission in Islamabad for an early reply. Similarly, he advised businessmen to mention the name of the businessmen or business house whom they wish to visit in the visa applications to enable swift processing.

He pointed out that visa regime was tight these days, but the Indian High Commission will try its best to entertain visa applications of Pakistani businessmen.

Former chairman SITE Association Zubair Motiwala pointed out that Pakistan would add another 100 items in the list of 600 in the forthcoming budget, which can be exported from India.

Majyd Aziz said that though Pakistani businessmen were importing large number of items from India, the import of Pakistani items by Indian businessmen is limited.

To a question about the Baglihar dam over Chenab, he said it would not affect water distribution for Pakistan and India as both the countries cannot walk out from the Indus Water Treaty.

He said people writing about this issue were ignorant of the real facts.

Earlier, senior vice chairman SITE Association Junaid Nawab in his welcome address presented the brief introduction about the association. He said bilateral trade relations should be improved to facilitate direct import between the two countries to reduce import cost.—APP