The move followed a cabinet meeting during which Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was briefed on a recent attack on Indian security forces in occupied Kashmir, in which 44 paramilitary soldierswere killed, Indian media reported.
Indian Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in a press briefing said that Modi's cabinet had decided to initiate steps to ensure complete diplomatic isolation of Pakistan.
"The MFN status that had been granted to Pakistan stands withdrawn," he added. In the World Trade Organization (WTO), this status means non-discrimination — treating virtually everyone equally. "Each member treats all the other members equally as 'most-favoured' trading partners. If a country improves the benefits that it gives to one trading partner, it has to give the same “best” treatment to all the other WTO members so that they all remain 'most-favoured'," explains the WTO website.
"The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) will initiate all possible steps ─ and I'm referring to [...] diplomatic steps ─ which have to be taken to ensure the complete isolation from the international community of Pakistan," Jaitley said, adding that there is "incontrovertible evidence" of Pakistan "having a direct hand in this gruesome terrorist incident".