'Pakistan should ask India to provide transit trade route'

[Neo]

'Pakistan should ask India to provide transit trade route'​

ISLAMABAD (July 14 2009): Pakistan should ask India to provide her the facility for transit trade with Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan, as Pakistan has agreed to provide India similar relaxation regarding trade with Afghanistan, said Mushahid Hassain Sayed.

Talking to Business Recorder here on Monday, after conclusion of a seminar on the issue of "Pakistan-American Relations" under the auspices of Centre for Research of Security Studies (CRSS) he said that it was need of the hour to pursue India to provide Pakistan route of trade with these countries.

He said that Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani must urge Indian premier Manmohan Singh during his meeting on the sidelines of Sharm-el-Sheikh summit of Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) to resolve all the outstanding issues with Pakistan through dialogue.

On a question he said that Pakistan should raise water issue with the Indian premier during the meeting as it was most important for Pakistan's agriculture. Mushahid added that the prime minister of Pakistan during the talks with the Indian premier in Sharm-el-Sheikh summit must ask India to stop human right's violations in occupied Kashmir.

He also said that conspiracies were being hatched through different channels to deprive Pakistan of its nuclear arsenal. Earlier, speaking at the seminar the speakers said that there are three elements of mistrust between the US and Pakistan and stressed United Sates must try to remove this mistrust.

They said that among the three issues, first is US track record of using, ditching and discarding an old ally (Pakistan) after achieving its goals on any important international matter.

Secondly, there always remained an 'India factor' despite the fact that India was ally of Soviet Union but US had always tilted towards India on Pakistan's expense including arms ban in 1965 war, failure to counter India-Soviet nexus in 1971, Pressler sanctions in 1990s and India-US nuclear deal in 2005, which violated both US laws and NPT. Thirdly, post 9/11 remarks of President Bush pertaining to Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) and campaign against ISI.

On a question why Pakistan is relying on US assistance and US dominating Pakistan's foreign policy, Mushahid said that Pakistan had achieved what was needed from US and at present US was dominating Indian foreign policy as compared to Pakistan.

Replying to a question he said that whenever USA starts romance with Pakistan there was dictatorship in Pakistan, adding that the dictators served the USA's interests in the best way as US wants only one window operation instead of democratic complications.

"For years, we had an unbalanced policy in South Asia and people are looking at it superficially and say that we have a great relationship with Pakistan, but it was a false relationship because at the first instance it was built against the India-Soviet Union nexus and latter it was against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan," Mushahid giving the presentation at the seminar reading an excerpts from an interview of Ex US under secretary of states Richard Armitage with Indian daily the Hindu said that US was safeguarding its interests in the region long ago and Armitage gave this interview to the paper 90 days before the 9/11 incidents.

Other speakers addressing the seminar said that the Pakistani leadership was just doing nothing seriously on the issues relating to Pak-US relations. They said that the Pakistan government was even informed about the US Drone strikes inside the Pakistani territory, but the leadership was just making statements.

 

[glomex]

Remember SAFTA... and how it failed to provide a desired impact.....


SAFTA or South Asian Free Trade Area agreement was formulated on January 6th, 2004 at the 12th SAARC summit held in Pakistan. The agreement envisages the creation of a model of free trade zone in its seven member nations. The seven member nations consisting of approximately, 1.4 billion people, include the following countries:

• India
• Nepal
• Pakistan
• Bangladesh
• Bhutan
• Maldives
• Nepal.

The SAFTA agreement was introduced with a view of levying zero customs duty for trading any product by the year 2012. The SAFTA agreement was implemented only after confirmation of compliance by the governments of the seven member nations. If the SAFTA agreement is religiously and judiciously followed, the agreement is likely to bring about economic stability in the member nations. The agreement may also facilitate healthy trade as well as investment relationship across borders thereby bringing about many structural reforms in the economy of the seven countries.
However, there are certain obstacles, which hinders trade across South Asian countries as a result of, which trade across borders of the South Asian countries account for only 5% of the total trade. The reason can be attributed to two prominent factors. They are political reasons and too much protectionism.

Political causes: During the late 1940s, majority of the South Asian nations were part of British India, which was a common political entity. During that period, there was considerable amount of trade between the different South Asian countries. However, in the year 1947, when India and Pakistan became independent, Pakistan imported most of its essential commodities from India. Pakistan also exported bulk of its export products to India (approximately 2/3rd of the total export commodities). Due to conflicts in different spheres, trade activities declined sharply between India and Pakistan.

Protectionism: Most of the South Asian countries, laid stress on import activities instead of promoting export activities. This tendency lowered productivity in different sectors of the economy. However, things are changing for the better. The different economies are gearing up to extend cooperation among themselves. This is evident by the fact that both Pakistan as well as India lowered trade tariffs in the year 2005.



It would be better if India and Pakistan can create mutual beneficial trade ties first......Providing free transit to each other could be a next step though........ as of now Indo-Pak trade figure lies around mere 2 to 3 Billion Dollars.......Considering the geographical proximity.....its pathetic......

 

[salman nedian]

Will this transit trade route be safe and dependable? If Pakistan has to reach Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh, we can ask china to facilitate in this regard.

 

[glomex]

Will this transit trade route be safe and dependable? If Pakistan has to reach Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh, we can ask china to facilitate in this regard.

...What.....you want China to provide Pakistan a transit route through India...........if wishes were birds...........

 

[salman nedian]

...What.....you want China to provide Pakistan a transit route through India...........if wishes were birds...........

I m talking about the possibility to avoid India in this route; China shares border with Bhutan and Nepal and due to its influence on Burma can provide us route to BD from Burma.

 

[glomex]

I m talking about the possibility to avoid India in this route; China shares border with Bhutan and Nepal and due to its influence on Burma can provide us route to BD from Burma.

Please don't get me wrong.....but it will be better for Pakistan to pursue India to provide transit rout through India rather than going ahead and doing something stupendous like going through China to Burma to Bangladesh......its going to be a major loss in the trade......can you think of a geographical impact of such a Rail/Road link.....that will be a major road block........

 

[salman nedian]

Please don't get me wrong.....but it will be better for Pakistan to pursue India to provide transit rout through India rather than going ahead and doing something stupendous like going through China to Burma to Bangladesh......its going to be a major loss in the trade......can you think of a geographical impact of such a Rail/Road link.....that will be a major road block........

Friend,
The problem is we cannot trust India. India will use this trade route to blackmail us and hence it will become a headache for us rather than a facility.

 

[glomex]

Friend,
The problem is we cannot trust India. India will use this trade route to blackmail us and hence it will become a headache for us rather than a facility.

I think then this is going to be a chicken and egg story....just like the way India thought in IPI Gas Pipline....and backed out.....

The only way the friction between India and Pakistan will reduce is when the number of stake holders and beneficiaries of the relationship are beyond Army or Political class..........

Just think of a scenario (You may call it my Fantasy).... If both India and Pakistan have a Huge amount of trade happening ....and their is a rift in political and Army of both countries..the biggest deterrent at that point of time will be the economical and trade loss to both countries rather than nuclear war..... the business community from both countries can exert so much pressure on each others government and can avoid a war ... may be forever.......

The idea is to increase the stakes so high that no one wants to hurt the other because the economic impact will be such that the citizens of the countries will exert so much pressure that there can be no war .....

 

[salman nedian]

I think then this is going to be a chicken and egg story....just like the way India thought in IPI Gas Pipline....and backed out.....

The only way the friction between India and Pakistan will reduce is when the number of stake holders and beneficiaries of the relationship are beyond Army or Political class..........

Just think of a scenario (You may call it my Fantasy).... If both India and Pakistan have a Huge amount of trade happening ....and their is a rift in political and Army of both countries..the biggest deterrent at that point of time will be the economical and trade loss to both countries rather than nuclear war..... the business community from both countries can exert so much pressure on each others government and can avoid a war ... may be forever.......

The idea is to increase the stakes so high that no one wants to hurt the other because the economic impact will be such that the citizens of the countries will exert so much pressure that there can be no war .....

The other stakeholders of India unfortunately too have the same mentality as of the Hindu fanatics. What they have done to us even in cricket, they even haven’t left sports.

India’s Business community will surely protect their national interests also and Indian government will try its best to blackmail Pakistan. After increase of trade Pakistan will become more dependable on Indian products, the situation can reverse of what you have stated.

Pakistan needs to enter in markets like Srilanka, Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan and at the same time we need to mitigate risks as well. What if some thing happen in future and India blocks the route? Will Indian Businessman pressurize India to remove the blockade? No they won’t.

It’s the lack of trust that won’t let us fulfill your dream.

 

[glomex]

The other stakeholders of India unfortunately too have the same mentality as of the Hindu fanatics. What they have done to us even in cricket, they even haven’t left sports.

India’s Business community will surely protect their national interests also and Indian government will try its best to blackmail Pakistan after increase of trade that Pakistan will become more dependable on Indian products the situation can reverse of what you have stated.

It’s the lack of trust that won’t let us fulfill your dream.

There are enough sane people in India and Pakistan my friend....who don't start dreaming bullets and bombs as soon you talk about India and Pakistan relationships...... Fanatics are found in both sides of the border...


You have to give dreams a chance .......to become realities.....


By the way.....every businessman be it India ...Pakistani...or American ...will always think of his interest when it comes to trade......it has to be a win win situation for all ...only then this kind of trade is facilitated...and then the idea of providing transit routes to Bangladesh and Afghanistan will not sound absurd........

 

[salman nedian]

There are enough sane people in India and Pakistan my friend....who don't start dreaming bullets and bombs as soon you talk about India and Pakistan relationships...... Fanatics are found in both sides of the border...


You have to give dreams a chance .......to become realities.....


By the way.....every businessman be it India ...Pakistani...or American ...will always think of his interest when it comes to trade......it has to be a win win situation for all ...only then this kind of trade is facilitated...and then the idea of providing transit routes to Bangladesh and Afghanistan will not sound absurd........

I am talking about risks. Businessman surely will evaluate the investment opportunities and they will assess the risks involved in that opportunity. If any thing –ve happens between the two countries, this trade route will be the first to get affected.

This cannot become a reality until and unless the disputes get resolved. Only after that we can ensure such route not before that.

 

[dabong1]

The only way the friction between India and Pakistan will reduce is when the number of stake holders and beneficiaries of the relationship are beyond Army or Political class..........

Bro.... the only way to reduce friction is to get the kashmir issue sorted.
Say we do start to trade in large numbers and have people exchanges ect the core issue of kashmir will come up sooner or later again and we will be back to stage one.

 

[Hyde]

Well, if we see India is going to use the Afghanistan trade route, why not we use them to Bhutan, Nipal, Bangladesh and Burma?

The day India blocks our trade route, we can do the same

Its a tit-for-tat, nothing to do with other relationships

If India want to use Trade Route for Afghanistan, allow us to use route for the above mentioned countries too

 

[salman nedian]

Well, if we see India is going to use the Afghanistan trade route, why not we use them to Bhutan, Nipal, Bangladesh and Burma?

The day India blocks our trade route, we can do the same

Its a tit-for-tat, nothing to do with other relationships

If India want to use Trade Route for Afghanistan, allow us to use route for the above mentioned countries too

Can be done, but as I have said it before we must have route from China as a backup route to ensure our safe reach to the above mentioned countries even if our relations with India get bad.

 

[dabong1]

I would say the indians need the trade routes from pakistan more then pakistan needs trade route from india......dont do it.....IPI is a great example of the indians putting there own security first so we should do the same.
They cant accept our guarantees on the pipeline so they pulled out we should do the same.......there might be attacks on pakistani drivers ect.... to unsafe for pakistani transport to travel through rebel held areas of india.