Pakistani minister hints at open sky deal with India

Pakistan has hinted at liberalising the civil aviation links with India and inking an "open sky" agreement between the two neighbours.

"We in the government of Pakistan do not have any objection to an open sky agreement with India," visiting Pakistan Commerce Minister Humayun Akhtar Khan told an interactive session with Indian chambers of commerce and industries here on Monday.

The civil aviation pact between the two countries is being re-negotiated and "we have no problem if your [Indian] airlines come to our country", he said.

Khan also signalled that Pakistan is keen to liberalise the visa regime to promote people-to-people contacts with India and build stronger bilateral trade ties.

"The visa regimes are going to come up for bilateral negotiations and I think we should free it as much as possible," the Pakistani minister said.

Khan said South Asian Free Trade Area (Safta) will be implemented on schedule from January next year and India and Pakistan will take five years to completely implement the Safta between each other.