'Ready to review decision to downgrade ties if New Delhi....': Pakistani foreign minister

Pakistan on Thursday said that it was ready to review its decision to downgrade bilateral ties with India if New Delhi agreed to reconsider is actions on Kashmir. "Are they ready to review their decisions? If they do, we can also review our decisions. Review will be on both sides. That is what Simla (agreement) says," Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said.

Pakistan had Wednesday announced to downgrade diplomatic ties with India and suspended bilateral trade. At the National Security Committee meeting, chaired by Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan, it was also decided to recall Pakistani High Commissioner to New Delhi.

The decision from Pakistan came in response to India's move to remove part of Article 370 of the Indian Constitution that gave Jammu and Kashmir a significant automony. The central government also devided the state in two Union Territories (UTs) - Jammu and Kashmir with its own legislature like Delhi and Ladakh without legislature like Chandigarh.

Reacting to Pakistan's move, Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said that the recent consitutional measures in Kashmir were internal affair of India but urged the neighbouring country to review its decisions.

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"The Government of India regrets the steps announced by Pakistan yesterday and would urge that country to review them so that normal channels for diplomatic communications are preserved.

"The recent developments pertaining to Article 370 are entirely the internal affair of India. The Constitution of India was, is and will always be a sovereign matter. Seeking to interfere in that jurisdiction by invoking an alarmist vision of the region will never succeed," MEA said.

Pakistan, which illegaly occupied a part of Jammu and Kashmir in 1947 when the state's ruler decided to join India after Independence and claims all of it, had condemned and rejected the Indian government's decision and vowed to exercise "all possible options" to counter India's "illegal" and "unilateral" step.