Commerce minister Kamal Nath (left) with his Pakistani counterpart Humayun Akhtar Khan (extreme right) and Ficci president Onkar Kanwar in New Delhi on Monday. (PTI)

New Delhi, Sept. 19: Pakistan today proposed that India and its neighbour open up their skies and allow airlines to fly to any destination in each country.

Pakistan commerce minister Humayun Akhtar Khan said he was ready to go for an open skies policy between the two nations, besides easing visa restrictions.

Khan made his offer at a gathering organised by Ficci here today. He said his government had “no problems” in forging an open sky policy and would try to liberalise its visa regime for businessmen and others.

He, however, did not give any timeframe but said the two countries had set the ball rolling by deciding to take a fresh look at the bilateral civil aviation agreement.

India wants Pakistan to allow budding private airlines from this country to fly into airports at Karachi and Lahore. However, the move is most likely to get nixed at home as well as in Pakistan.

Last year, when India announced an open skies policy for South Asia, the announcement hid the fact that it was open for all nations in the seven-member group, except Pakistan.

A move by India to open up its skies has to be reciprocal and intelligence services had voiced strong reservations as it would mean a larger influx of Pakistani passengers into the country. Pakistani intelligence services are known to have similar reservations.

Khan, however, said Pakistan “was committed to the January 1, 2006 deadline for the South Asia Free Trade Agreement.” The pact would remove many restrictions to bilateral trade, including high tariffs.

“We are willing to go beyond Safta for India-Pakistan trade and the two countries would fully operationalise Safta within five years instead of 10 as provided in the agreement,” he said. The minister also agreed to take a fresh look at the “outdated” India-Pakistan shipping agreement.

Commerce minister Kamal Nath agreed that the regional South Asian trading bloc should be strengthened.