MPAs insist on Afghan trade debate

LAHORE: No ‘agreement’ was signed between Pakistan and Afghanistan, the trade ministers of both countries only signed a ‘record note’, Tanveer Ashraf Kaira, the provincial finance minister, told the provincial assembly on Wednesday after several treasury and opposition members raised points of orders on the issue.

Kaira followed up with suggesting the house not to spend time debating the Afghan Transit Trade Agreement (ATTA) as the National Assembly was the relevant forum for such a discussion.

Defending the Pakistan People’s Party-led federal government’s agreement with Afghanistan, he denied that the government had given passage to India for trade.

He said that under the ‘record note’ signed between Pakistan and Afghanistan, Afghan goods trucks would get access till the Wagha Border. He added that at the border, the Afghan trucks would unload the goods which would then be loaded in the Indian trucks to be transported to India.

A tracking system would be set up to monitor the movement of the Afghan trucks in Pakistan to ensure that they don’t go missing, he said.

Kaira insisted that debating the issue was a useless exercise because no ministry concerned with it had its office in the province.

“National Assembly is the proper forum to discuss this issue, we can initiate a debate but it would only help waste time,” he said.

Earlier, treasury as well as opposition members raised points of order on the issue. They expressed serious concerns and called the signing of the ‘agreement’ a security concern. These members demanded the speaker to allow a debate in this regard.

On a point of order, Shuja Khanzada of PML-N said, United States had practically admitted its defeat in Afghanistan during the Afghanistan Donors’ Conference and agreed to negotiate with the Taliban. He criticised the US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, for visiting Pakistan merely to dictate US terms.

Shamus Haider of the PML-N asked the federal government to take the Punjab MPAs on board, saying “the province is a stakeholder in the matter”.

He warned that the transit facility could be misused for smuggling of arms and for infiltration of Pakistan’s territory.

Amna Ulfat, an opposition member, demanded that the said agreement should be made public. She said that the matter should be openly debated on every platform available. Later, she walked out of the house in protest against the agreement.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 22^nd, 2010.