Pakistan Resumes Postal Mail Service With India: Reports

Pakistan has resumed postal mail service with India, nearly three months after it was suspended in the wake of India’s decision to end the special status of Jammu and Kashmir, the Pakistan media reported on Tuesday. Tensions between India and Pakistan spiked after New Delhi abrogated provisions of Article 370 of the Constitution to withdraw Jammu and Kashmir’s special status and bifurcated it into two Union Territories.

India’s August 5 decision evoked strong reactions from Pakistan, which downgraded diplomatic ties. Islamabad suspended all communication links with India as well as the trade ties. According to the Pakistani media, the postal mail service with India has resumed, but the parcel service will remain suspended.

However, there was no official announcement on the resumption of the limited postal service with India. Pakistan had not accepted any postal consignment from India after August 27 in a move seen as a retaliation of scrapping of special status for Jammu and Kashmir. Communications and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, who is also in-charge of the postal department, said in October that Islamabad resorted to stopping postal mail service unilaterally and without giving any prior notice to India.

“Pakistan’s decision is directly in contravention of world postal union norms. But Pakistan is Pakistan,” Prasad had said. Pakistan’s move was unprecedented as the postal mail service had continued in the past even through the partition, wars, and cross-border tensions.