Creating economic zones
By Riaz Missen

The president of Pakistan has told an Indian daily that his country will like to develop an economic zone with India on the pattern of the European Union. The proposal has come on the heal of the various bold statements he has been making since he took PPP’s affairs in his hands after the demise of his spouse, Benazir Bhutto, last December.

“Pakistan’s future lies in good ties with India,” he said in interview with Tehelka early this year. This was his first ever statement on India as the co-chairperson of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP). “India should play a bigger role. Being the bigger power in the region, it carries a larger responsibility because any upheaval, any Balkanisation, any Talibanisation, any warlord-like situation in Pakistan would directly affect India,” he said while elaborating his point.

Zardari believes Pakistan will essentially benefit from good relations with India. Friendship means opening up of borders; people will interact and trade will flow bringing down the cost of production and raising the purchasing power of people. Indian banks can provide necessary credit to Pakistani entrepreneurs while sharing of research in health, agriculture and industry has its own benefits.  

“Islamabad and New Delhi should help people move more freely across the border. Current visa restrictions should be replaced by passport-free travel, with regular travellers given a special card to ease passage,” Financial Times, an Indian daily, quoted him last Saturday.

His interview with an IBN live correspondent, Karan Thapar, after the recent general elections, made headlines in Pakistani and Indian newspapers. In this interview he laid down the strategy to remove the atmosphere of fear surrounding the two countries and talked about creating economic interdependence between the two countries to build up trust.

Kashmir has been the cause of conflicting relations between the two but Asif Ali Zardari had once said that his government was ready to take back seat on the issue for while and further economic ties instead. He said that the settlement of the Kashmir issue could be delayed at least for ten years. Such statements were widely hailed in Delhi to the disenchantment of the Kashmiri groups and their sympathisers in Pakistan.Since the beginning of peace process, that India initiated and termed as non-reversal during Vajpayee regime, the volume of bilateral trade has significantly increased but Pakistan has yet to reciprocate neighbour’s initiative of giving it the Most Friendly Nation (MFN) status.

Besides accumulating the benefits of transit trade, Pakistan also hopes to promote tourism by showcasing its 5000 old civilisation having attraction for the entire major religious groups — Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, and Muslims etc.

When confrontation has proved useless, cooperation can be tried with the best intentions. It is probably what Mr. Asif Ali Zardari means right now. India is likely to respond the moves positively given its own energy and trade needs that Pakistan has offered to fulfil. He has rightly raised the question as to why India can’t trade with Pakistan as it is trading with China. Surprisingly enough the president happens to be the only person who is talking so genuinely vis-à-vis improving ties with India. The foreign ministry has yet to translate Zardari’s vision into policies and the official media has to change its language accordingly. The curricula taught in government-run schools and colleges need to be re-adjusted with the emerging Look-East policy of Pakistan.

India is one of the largest neighbours which shares historical ties with Pakistan. The two countries have won independence from the same colonial power, the United Kingdom, but have stood hostile to each other during most part of their existence. Pakistan has fought three wars with the neighbour and the last caused its break up in 1971.