Pakistan on Sunday responded in a statement to India seizing a Malta-flagged Chinese cargo vessel that was delivering the "machines for Pakistan nuclear programme.” The Karachi-bound ship was seized by India’s military in Mumbai as it was en route to Pakistan. Islamabad, in a statement, said that the action on part of Indian authorities was “unjustified” adding that the vessel was delivering the commercial goods.

“Pakistan condemns India’s high-handedness in seizure of commercial goods. This disruption of free trade underscores the dangers inherent in the arbitrary assumption of policing roles by states with dubious credentials,” Pakistan Foreign Office spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch said. She added that the items on the vessels were “a commercial lathe machine.” The seed machinery, she continued, was supposed to be delivered to Cosmos Engineering, a Karachi-based firm that manufactures automobile parts and home appliances. 

Pakistan calls India's seizure as done on ‘misrepresentation of facts’

India’s forces who seized the vessel say that they have retrieved the documents, the bill of lading and other consignment details that clarify that the vessel was transporting machinery for Pakistan’s nuclear programme. The consigner was Shanghai JXE Global Logistics Co Ltd and weighed 22,180 kilograms, said Indian authorities citing the bills. Pakistan Foreign Office, however, argued that the seizure was done basis of the"misrepresentation of facts”.

The CMA CGM Attila, a Chinese ship, was destined for Pakistan. It was halted at Mumbai's Nhava Sheva port by Indian authorities. Officials told PTI on Saturday that a team from the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) have evaluated the shipment. They argued that it a Computer Numerical Control (CNC) machine for the possible use in Pakistan's nuclear development.

Baloch, however, dismissed the statements, saying that this “is a simple case of import of a commercial lathe machine by a Karachi-based commercial entity, which supplies parts to the automobile industry in Pakistan.” She continued that the “speci­fications of the equipment clearly indicate its purely commercial use.” According to Pakistan’s foreign ministry, the transaction “was being conducted through transparent banking channels with all the relevant documentation.Such acts also highlight the growing impunity of certain states in violating international norms and taking arbitrary measures in violation of international law," she added. Cosmos Engineering, a Pakistani defence supplier, has been on the radar of the Indian authorities since March, last year after the suspicious shipment of Italian-made thermoelectric instruments at the Nhava Sheva port.