Transit trade accord

Pakistan has an unfortunate propensity to miss opportunities, principally because of indifferent, strained or downright hostile relations with its contiguous neighbours and other countries in the region. This has persisted for decades and is only slowly beginning to change, but countries that are willing and able to capitalise on emerging opportunities are beginning to make the agreements that will underpin future development and wealth creation. On May 23, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, all signed a three-way transit agreement that pivots around the Iranian southern port of Chabahar.

Like the port of Gwadar in Pakistan that is still something of a white elephant, a character in search of an author, Chabahar has never achieved its potential. The reasons are many and complex, with regional tensions figuring large. With the easing of sanctions on Iran post to the nuclear non-proliferation deal last year, a range of opportunities present themselves, and connecting Iran through India and Afghanistan to the Central Asian states makes eminently good business sense. Chabahar could become a business hub and is in obvious competition with Gwadar both now and in the future. Pakistan has failed to negotiate a transit agreement with Afghanistan and it is unsurprising that Afghanistan would turn to Iran to maximise opportunity. India has long invested in development in Afghanistan and quickly outflanked Pakistan diplomatically after the downfall of the Taliban. It cemented the post-Taliban relationship with development funding — India funded the new parliament building that houses both the upper and lower houses. Pakistan invested in conflict rather than nation-building, missing an opportunity as it did.

Pakistan cannot rely only on the Chinese and the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor as the panacea for multiple ills. With the country remaining preoccupied with internal security troubles and a government weakened by sterile political conflicts or ‘scandals’, then other countries in the region will find ways to walk around us rather than build inclusive relationships. The relationship with Saudi Arabia is being recalibrated successfully and there is no reason — theoretically — why others should not be similarly adjusted. Opportunity is for the taking, not the wasting.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 25^th, 2016.

Like Opinion & Editorial on Facebook, follow @ETOpEd on Twitter to receive all updates on all our daily pieces.