Pakistan is set to miss the target of granting India the Most Favoured Nation (MFN) status by December 31 due to vested interests, officials alleged. Pakistan announced in October 2011 that it will grant MFN status to India from January 1, 2013. Meanwhile, trade relations improved significantly between the two countries. India had granted MFN status to Pakistan in 1996. However, non- tariff barriers remained intact on exports from Pakistan and both sides did not make much of progress towards trade liberalisation. The next possible cabinet meeting will be held on January 2, 2013 and the issue of granting MFN status to India is not on the agenda, the officials conceded. They further added that Pakistan has also missed the deadline of December 15, 2012 to abolish the negative list. The trade officials claimed they had completed their homework on the matter but it seemed that certain forces were pressurizing the government to avoid granting the status.