Islam & Pakistan! Technology & Me!
Afghan-India trade route through Pakistan
Skimming through today’s newspaper I came across a headline saying ‘US presses Pakistan to Open Afghan-India trade route’. It took me back to the 6th of May 2009 when the President of Pakistan (you-know-who) first signed a trade agreement in Washington with Afghan President Hamid Karzai.
I recall how it was discussed and mildly debated in the media. It made me think over it again and the implications of opening such a trade-route through the Wagah-Border.
This is what I could come up with, please feel free to express what comes to your mind in the comments:
1) It will show Pakistani weakness on the Kashmir issue. Transit trade with India has been closed for the past 43 years clearly linked with the resolution of the Kashmir dispute.
2) It will undermine the Pakistani export industry. From what I’ve read, over 90% goods in the Afghan market go through Pakistan or are Pakistani products. We’re talking about giving leverage to the Indians to actually infilitrate our strong market presence there.
3) It will undermine our national security by allowing Indians the freedom to move through Pakistan.
4) The Pakistan Army will be made responsible to take care of and provide security to Indian movements through Pakistan – something I believe will be very insulting for us as a nation to bear with.
The points I have mentioned above may not sound as convincing as I might want them to sound, but the fact of the matter is, it will be tantamount to shooting ourselves in the foot!
I was pleased when Pakistan denies India the right to trade with Afghanistan via Pakistan stressing that the agreement signed in Washington was to enhance Pak-Afghan trade and not to facilitate India.
But now this – the US pressure – what does this signify? It is only more of the staggering evidence that we now have that India is dearer to the United States and that Pakistan must open its eyes to US manipulation and treachery.
US presses Pakistan to open Afghan-India trade route
WASHINGTON: The United States is pushing Pakistan to allow Afghan agricultural products to pass through its territory to India, says US Agriculture Sectary Tom Vilsack.
“We hope to be able to conclude that agreement in the very near future,” Mr Vilsack told journalists in Washington during a teleconference from Kabul.
He said the US effort to convince Pakistan to open the trade route was part of its plan to revive the once-prosperous and export-oriented farm industry of the land-locked country.
India is also considering an alternative route through Iran in case efforts to secure the trade-route via Pakistan fail.
I urge our government and people to stand firm on this deman not to allow India transit-trade facility via Pakistan. We are already sufferin enough of Indian state-sponsored terrorism in Pakistan, insurgencies in Balochistan and the NWFP.
