ISLAMABAD: The commerce ministry has categorically dismissed reports of trade with Israel after a Pakistani-Jewish businessman said he had sent a food consignment to that country.

In a statement released on Sunday, the ministry said disinformation was being spread through social media platforms that an export shipment had been sent to Israel.

The Customs also dispelled the rumour, stating that no record was found of any direct trade with Israel, the ministry said. If any goods or commodities of Pakistan origin were exported through a third country, they could not be termed Pakistan’s exports to any country.

The trade was done through the UAE as the country had reduced tariffs on 96 per cent of goods traded with Israel. This has benefited traders in the two countries, the ministry added.

It said the American Jewish Congress had not mentioned any official trade between Pakistan and Israel in its press release.

The statement added that no transaction for the exchange was made through official banking channels, describing the rumour as “misleading and factually incorrect”.

The ministry said no trade or diplomatic ties were being established with Israel.

Pakistan neither recognises Israel as a sovereign state nor does it have banking relations with that country, the commerce ministry said.

The American Jewish Congress (AJC), an advocacy group based in New York, released a statement on March 30 about the purported trade “between the state of Israel and Pakistan”.

“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 hub of Karachi, and three Israeli businessmen from Jerusalem and Haifa,” the AJC said in the statement.

“We welcome this small step that can have wider implications for Israeli and Pakistani economies and for the region at large,” the statement added.

On March 28, Mr Benkhald tweeted: “Congratulations to Me as a Pakistani. I exported [the] first batch of Pakistan food products to Israel market. Dates, dry fruit, spice single container.”

On Saturday, Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah said the government had not permitted anyone to engage in trade activities with Israel.

“We will conduct an investigation into this,” he said. “Now we are receiving information that in the previous regime, Imran Khan had given similar permission to someone, but nothing of this sort has come up to our notice, information, or inquiry right now,” he told Independent Urdu in an interview.

Published in Dawn, April 3rd, 2023