Home »Top Stories » Bilateral trade: government ready to initiate talks with BJP government

  • News Desk
  • May 21st, 2014
  • Comments Off on Bilateral trade: government ready to initiate talks with BJP government
Pakistan is ready to initiate trade talks with the newly-elected Indian government while keeping the interests of the country supreme, said Khurram Dastgir Khan Federal Minister for Commerce. "Our strategy regarding India is still the same and trade talks would be opened on the indication of newly-elected government," said the minister while talking to media, here on Tuesday.

The government is persuading regional connectivity and wants to have trade with all the neighbouring countries including central Asia for which peaceful and stable Fata and Afghanistan is vital, said the minister, adding that trade relations with Iran was one of the important point on the agenda in the Prime Minister's recent visit. He said in Afghan presidential polls, the government proved that Pakistan does not support any particular group or school of thought in Afghanistan. He said election of their future leader is democratic right of Afghan people.

Earlier, addressing the national conference "Pakistan in Post-2014 Geo-political Regional Scenario: Exploiting Trade and business potential for peace building in Fata" organised by Fata Research Centre (FRC), the minister said the government is planning to establish land ports at Chaman and Wagha border to be fully equipped technically and work on a bill in this regard is under way. The minister further said that work on a land port in Torkham has already started.

Federal Minister for Textile Industry, Abbas Khan Afridi said that Fata is a land of unexplored socio-economic potential. Fata was ignored for decades and the current problems are because of negligence of the past. Its resources remain unexplored, children are deprived of education and employment is denied to the youth. Once the Fata is provided with equal opportunities, the progress made by the region would be second to none. The Minister added that the Textile Ministry is coming up with a textile training program for women and special privilege would be given to the women from Fata. The minister stated that reality about Fata is quite different from the prevalent perception, as terror promoting minority would soon become a tale of the past. Trade and business activities can serve as a long term solution to the terror menace. Replying to a question, Afridi said that government would bring reforms in Fata as it is the part of PML-N manifesto.

Sadiq Khan, Secretary to National Security Division said the US-Isaf drawdown from Afghanistan will bring new challenges in Pakistan as well as the whole tribal belt. Afghanistan is likely to sign Bilateral Security Agreement with the US as all the elite of the country will supports it any time soon. He further said that there is no withdrawal from Afghanistan but only the number of troops will be reduced. The post-2014 Afghanistan will bring more challenges for Pakistan as the war economy would shrink and would result in huge refuges influx to the country. He further said that reduction of troops would be replaced by 100 thousand security contractors and would have serious repercussions for Pakistan. Sadiq said economic activities are likely to be reduced in Afghanistan and would resultantly increase extremism.

Motiwala, President, Pak Afghan Chambers of Commerce and Industries said due to law and order, investment and foreign aid do not have accessibility to the prime region linking Pakistan with Afghanistan. The volume of earning in the arms trade and the number of people involved in this business are undocumented. Though at smaller scale, weapons manufacturing and trade exists in all of Fata. In short, lasting economic stability and regional integration goes hand in hand with security intact. Infrastructure development in Fata and KP will help build stability, integrate the region into broader Pakistan and increase the authority of the state.

Danish Ambassador Jesper M Sorensen said Denmark's support to FRC was aimed at encouraging research work on Fata, develop a knowledge bank and bring forward local issues to the national discourse. "By doing so, we believe we can pave way for a debate on change and the necessary interventions that will bring peace and development to the tribal region of Fata as well as for Pakistan and the region," he added. He said they recognise that the people of Pakistan have suffered more from terrorism than perhaps any other nation and for us nothing is more important than to find solutions to peace and prosperity that certainly includes Fata," said the ambassador. He added that it is important that vibrant economic activities be created in Fata that are most important to the consolidation of peace. It is also the best prevention to curb militant influence on the youth.

President FRC Dr Ashraf said Pakistan suffered a lot since 9/11 as more than 50,000 people were killed, 2,000 tribal elders lost, more than 1,000 schools were demolished while more than 100 journalists were martyred. The country is still suffering but the questions is whether our military is capable of meeting the situation, do we have political strength and will to cope the menace of militancy, he added.

Experts further said besides using hard military tools to control militancy; the long term solution to the menace lies in promotion of trade, business, art and cultural activities in the Pakistani tribal areas and adjoining districts of Afghanistan. They discussed threadbare the prospects of exploiting business and trade opportunities to ensure sustainable peace and integrating the tribal region with the rest of the country. They also shared views on the nature of conflict and militancy in tribal regions and analysed the existing policy tools being pursued for countering militancy and suggested policy recommendations.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2014


the author

Top
Close
Close