Time to shed our India policy

Letter February 16, 2012
We need to shed our past foreign policy and security doctrines.

LAHORE: India and Pakistan are slowly making progress in building a trustworthy relationship and they are doing this by trying to liberalise their trade policies. As part of this, dozens of Indian entrepreneurs displayed their products and services at a fair held at the Lahore Exhibition Centre from February 11-13. The fair was visited by a large number of people and was, in fact, the first trade show of Indian companies. It was also the first time that India’s commerce minister, Anand Sharma, visited Pakistan along with a delegation comprising 120 top Indian businessman.

Pakistani businessmen are supporting the government in normalising bilateral trade between the two countries. However, India is still not allowing some Pakistani products to be exported to India because of non-tariff barriers. For example, cement cannot be exported freely to India though India has a lot of demand for the commodity to be imported from overseas.

The fact is that a majority of the people in both countries want peace. Free trade between the two countries will not only reduce tensions on their border but will also permit the Pakistani military to concentrate in tackling non-India related security issues.

Both countries should forget their acrimonious past and fight wars not with each other but against poverty and illiteracy. Hundreds of millions of people are living in such conditions in both the countries. As for Pakistan, it is in need of direct investment to overcome its energy crisis, and in that regard Indian investors could play a role.

Both countries should realise that in today’s world, a country will progress not because it has a large military but because it has a thriving economy. Both countries should also know that having a large stockpile of nuclear weapons did not prevent the mighty Soviet Union from collapsing but a vibrant and strong economy might have had.

Pakistan is blessed with hardworking people and tremendous natural resources and it should harness them for socioeconomic prosperity. But this will only be possible if we have friendly relations with our neighbours. We need to shed our past foreign policy and security doctrines and the reason for saying that is clear: they simply haven’t worked because we aren’t any better off than we were, say, a decade or two ago.

S T Hussain

Published in The Express Tribune, February 17th, 2012.