Let us talk economics

Let's get Iranian gas pipeline completed and let Tehran talk to India for extending it beyond our borders towards east

There are a number of genuine reasons for the running feud between India and Pakistan. It is not only Kashmir that fuels the feud but the very partition seems to have made it almost impossible for India to establish normal neighbourly relations with Pakistan. And we will probably never forgive India for its role in the forcible dismemberment of Pakistan. Also, the two have gone to three full- fledged wars and if Kargil is counted it would be three and a half.

So, while one can understand why there is animosity between India and Pakistan, most Pakistanis, however, find it almost impossible to understand why there is so much bitterness between Kabul and Islamabad on the one hand and between Tehran and Islamabad on the other.

Kabul has reservations about the Durand Line which separates Pakistan from Afghanistan. Indeed, the line has not only divided tribes, families but even houses. But during the first Afghan war that lasted almost the entire decade of 1980s and again during the second Afghan war that though is continuing but almost the entire decade of 2000 and before that during the 1990s both the countries had treated the Durand Line as a non-existent border with the populations of the two countries moving across it without hindrance.

But something inexplicable happened at the fag-end of the decade of 2000 and we found that we had started accusing each other of exporting terrorism across the line. We have now started building fences across the main entry points.

One explanation which could be true as well is that India is fomenting trouble between the two countries by funding the anti-Pakistan elements inside Afghanistan as well as by supporting with money and weapons the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) terrorists who had crossed over to Afghanistan while fleeing from Zarb-e-Azb military campaign launched in parts of the federally administered tribal areas.

But even if it were true then why is Afghanistan accusing us of providing sanctuary to Afghan Taliban and even of helping them mount terror attacks from across the safety of the border? If this is true then we should know who is doing this and why. The situation has been allowed to deteriorate to such an extent that not only Kabul has refused to attend an ECO summit held early this year in Islamabad; it had also under the influence of India boycotted the cancelled Saarc summit which was to be held in Islamabad late last year.

The situation with Iran is not as serious as it is between Pakistan and Afghanistan but the trust deficit that exists between the two is certainly worrisome and again something which most Pakistanis have failed to understand. Of course, Iran is justified in suspecting our intentions because we are very close to two of its bitter enemies — the US and Saudi Arabia. And there have been a number of cross border terror incidents mounted from the Pakistani side across the borders which Tehran perhaps suspects were inspired either by the US or Saudi Arabia.

Our policymakers should give some serious thought to resolving these hostilities that are plaguing our relations with Kabul and Tehran. More importantly, in order to focus wholeheartedly on our eastern border which has remained on the boil now for almost three years we need to secure our back which is where Afghanistan and Iran are situated.

For a change, instead of politics let us talk economics with both these neighbours. Let us get the Iranian gas pipeline completed at the earliest and even let Tehran talk to India for extending it beyond our borders towards the east. And let us offer a land route to Afghanistan to do two-way trade with India. This will not only reduce the animosity dogging our relations with Afghanistan and Iran but perhaps help us also earn some badly needed foreign exchange in return as well as the goodwill of business circles in all the three countries. This would surely help create influential pro-Pakistan lobbies in these countries which would see to it that their respective governments do not commit any misadventure to harm Pakistan’s interests.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 6^th, 2017.

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