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Military blocking Pakistan-India trade deal, says Shahbaz Sharif

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Military blocking Pakistan-India trade deal, says Shahbaz Sharif

Security networks' distrust of increased business dealings is counter-productive, warns Pakistani PM's brother



Shahbaz-Sharif-London-071-011.jpg



Thursday
13 February 2014

18.28 GMT


The powerful brother of Pakistan's prime minister has warned the military establishments of both India and Pakistan not to block efforts to sweep aside trade barriers between the two distrustful neighbours.



On Indian affairs Shahbaz Sharif, the chief minister of Punjab, is widely seen as the de facto Pakistani foreign minister, conducting diplomatic missions to Delhi on behalf of his brother Nawaz Sharif, the prime minister.



But speaking to the Guardian he warned that distrustful "security agencies" in both Pakistan and India were one of the two main "blockages" holding back plans to liberalise trade, which the Sharifs believe will provide a desperately needed boost to Pakistan's moribund economy.



"Security agencies on both sides need to really understand that in today's world, a security-led vision is obviously driven by economic security," he said. "Unless you have economic security then you can't have general security."



While the Sharif brothers, in common with most mainstream politicians in Pakistan, are impatient for a rapprochement with India, the military is far more wary.



Pakistan and India have fought three wars in the nearly seven decades since independence and tensions over the disputed province of Kashmir erupted in violence several times in the last year.



Pakistan's powerful military has warned the Sharifs against making rapid concessions, particularly in the runup to India's general election. The incumbent Congress party is struggling to hold off a strong challenge from the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata party.



Manmohan Singh, the prime minister, has long favoured better relations with Pakistan and may still travel across the frontier before the polls, which are due in April or May.



At the same time jihadi organisations in Pakistan with considerable street power have noisily protested against any trade deals while much of the former Himalayan kingdom of Kashmir remains within India.



But the brothers are determined to make progress. Sharif said disputes including Kashmir, cross-border water rights and the Siachen glacier – where soldiers from both sides are engaged in a gruelling, high-altitude standoff – would only be resolved through "dialogue and imaginative thinking".



"If we remain hostage to our past then we will go nowhere," Sharif said in an interview at his private mansion in Lahore.



"We have fought three wars and it brought nothing but devastation and destruction. It brought miseries on both sides. It added more poverty, more unemployment. It solved nothing."



This week India expressed its annoyance with the slow pace of reform in Pakistan when Anand Sharma, India's commerce and industry minister, cancelled a trip to Pakistan due to coincide with the second trade show to be held by Indian companies in Lahore on Friday. Sharma said Pakistan had failed to enact trade-boosting measures that had been agreed upon, including the start of round-the-clock truck passage at one of only two border crossings and the opening up to trade of hundreds of currently restricted items.



Even though Pakistan and India share thousands of miles of border, common languages and many cultural traditions, trade is negligible.



Few goods cross through the sleepy border crossing at Wagah border, which sits between Lahore and the Indian city of Amritsar – just a dozen miles from each.



Some goods are traded via third countries such as the United Arab Emirates, a practice Sharif describes as "very, very expensive".



India also continues to press Pakistan to tackle militants targeting Indian-held Kashmir, in particular Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), the Punjab-based jihadist group that was responsible for the devastating terrorist attacks on the city of Mumbai in 2008.



Sharif said he told Singh during a meeting in Delhi in December that the matter was with Pakistan's courts and "those who are found to be involved, there is no question they will be punished".



Indian officials say such assurances are not new and that Islamabad needs to "walk the walk, after talking the talk".



Many observers, conscious of LeT's historic relationship with Pakistan's military intelligence agency, are sceptical that anyone will ever be brought to book. Hafiz Saeed, founder of LeT, lives and preaches openly in Lahore despite a $10m US government bounty on his head.



In recent weeks Maulana Masood Azhar, the chief of Jaish-e-Mohammed, a militant group that attacked the Indian parliament in 2001, has also taken up a greater public role, even addressing a public rally two weeks ago.



But Sharif said India has its own hardline groups opposed to peace efforts, naming the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, a rightwing Hindu nationalist organisation which he said regularly protested against Pakistan.



Sharif said Islamabad had presented credible evidence of Indian involvement in the separatist insurgency raging in the troubled province of Baluchistan.



"Both countries need to stop the blame game jointly resolve to move aside these roadblocks and move forward with a clear-cut agenda," he said.



Nonetheless, in a bid to appease hardline nationalists, Pakistan has dropped efforts to grant India "most favoured nation" status. In a purely semantic reworking, it has opted instead for the less inflammatory "non-discriminatory market access".



Indian officials said the issue of involvement in Baluchistan was raised at a strained meeting between Singh and Nawaz Sharif in New York last year. "The prime minister subsequently said he had seen no credible evidence from the Pakistani side to back the allegations and since then there has been no change in that," the Delhi official said.



Analyst Ashok Mehta, a retired Indian army general, said Sharif was wrong to say Indian "security agencies" were opposed to better relations with Pakistan, because many senior officers believed an improvement in relations with Pakistan "would free us up to deal with the greater threat, which is China".



Mehta said that, outside Kashmir, the Indian army and intelligence services were "subservient to the civilian leadership".



"The big difference between security officials in Pakistan and India is that here they take orders from a civilian government," he told the Guardian.



SOURCE:



THE GUARDIAN


Military blocking Pakistan-India trade deal, says Shahbaz Sharif | World news | theguardian.com



@Slayer786 @ajpirzada@Counter-Errorist @user1 @Luftwaffe



Eager for "BUSINESS"
 
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The Sharif brothers are businessmen at the core, not actual ''leaders'', they may care about business and the economy in terms of numbers, facts and figure, they don't realize what an impact such deals would have on the local geo-political situation, this would be a sign of weakness by the Pakistani establishment since most of Pakistan's initiatives are not reciprocated by the Indian establishment. I am all up for peace, don't get me wrong, but I want peace on relatively equal footings, we need to be in a mutually respectful as well as beneficial relationship. Pakistan has time and time again tried such measures but received the cold shoulder from the other side, the Sharif brothers need to realize that a relation with India may be beneficial on paper if it succeeds, now that is a big if I must say but it would still mean Pakistani subversion to Indian hegemony.......:coffee:
 
Good thats how it should be. Army knows nature of bhangees while Ganjas are looking at short term gain. Hell banias dont allow Pakistanis to make few millions from IPL, while they dream of billions of profit from Pakistan. Ganja need to find other countries to export his sugar.
 
The Sharif brothers are businessmen at the core, not actual ''leaders'', they may care about business and the economy in terms of numbers, facts and figure, they don't realize what an impact such deals would have on the local geo-political situation, this would be a sign of weakness by the Pakistani establishment since most of Pakistan's initiatives are not reciprocated by the Indian establishment. I am all up for peace, don't get me wrong, but I want peace on relatively equal footings, we need to be in a mutually respectful as well as beneficial relationship. Pakistan has time and time again tried such measures but received the cold shoulder from the other side, the Sharif brothers need to realize that a relation with India may be beneficial on paper if it succeeds, now that is a big if I must say but it would still mean Pakistani subversion to Indian hegemony.......:coffee:

Pakistanis retard politicians can't think about our future generations. Look what BCCI is doing to PCB because they dominate cricket financialy. Thats their real nature, these people are backstabrs. As they say if you see snake and bharti, kill bharati first.
 
Pakistanis retard politicians can't think about our future generations. Look what BCCI is doing to PCB because they dominate cricket financialy. Thats their real nature, these people are backstabrs. As they say if you see snake and bharti, kill bharati first.

Yes we need to realize that taking the initiative (as we have done time and time again) will definitely be seen as bowing to Indian subversion,the Indian government in its arrogance will never take us as equals and that is the bitter truth the Sharifs need to realize, prosperity in exchange for selling our pride is prosperity not needed......:coffee:
 
The Sharif brothers are businessmen at the core, not actual ''leaders'', they may care about business and the economy in terms of numbers, facts and figure, they don't realize what an impact such deals would have on the local geo-political situation, this would be a sign of weakness by the Pakistani establishment since most of Pakistan's initiatives are not reciprocated by the Indian establishment. I am all up for peace, don't get me wrong, but I want peace on relatively equal footings, we need to be in a mutually respectful as well as beneficial relationship. Pakistan has time and time again tried such measures but received the cold shoulder from the other side, the Sharif brothers need to realize that a relation with India may be beneficial on paper if it succeeds, now that is a big if I must say but it would still mean Pakistani subversion to Indian hegemony.......:coffee:

It may seem fair to declare "on equal footings etc. etc." but Pak needs to get off its high horse of equality since it A'INT. It is like Haiti saying it is equal to US! The only area where some cooperation with India is possible is trade since both will win from it. In all other dealings India ends up giving something up and there is no reason for it to do so

Yes we need to realize that taking the initiative (as we have done time and time again) will definitely be seen as bowing to Indian subversion,the Indian government in its arrogance will never take us as equals and that is the bitter truth the Sharifs need to realize, prosperity in exchange for selling our pride is prosperity not needed......:coffee:
Look Pal if you make it a matter of honor and pride that you MUST have someone else's wife as your own (to use an analogy) or else you will have nothing to do with that man, then the man must respond "To HELL with you."
 
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It may seem fair to declare "on equal footings etc. etc." but Pak needs to get off its high horse of equality since it A'INT. It is like Haiti saying it is equal to US! The only area where some cooperation with India is possible is trade since both will win from it. In all other dealings India ends up giving something up and there is no reason for it to do so

well that is where in my opinion hegemony and subversion come into play, Pakistan is neither as weak as Haiti nor is India as strong as the US albeit I get the point of your comparison and I acknowledge it, India is not the only gateway to economic prosperity, first we need to exploit all other options which are more viable at least from a nationalistic point of view and only after that should we go for India, its not like India is the only possible trade partner......:coffee:

Look Pal if you make it a matter of honor and pride that you MUST have someone else's wife as your own (to use an analogy) or else you will nothing to do with that man, then the man must respond "To HELL with you."

sorry, I dont get the analogy you used, my English needs to improve I guess.....:D
 
Yes we need to realize that taking the initiative (as we have done time and time again) will definitely be seen as bowing to Indian subversion,the Indian government in its arrogance will never take us as equals and that is the bitter truth the Sharifs need to realize, prosperity in exchange for selling our pride is prosperity not needed......:coffee:

There wont be any prosperity, one just have to look at state of India. Much more poverty there compared to in Pakistan. It will benefit mostly India and few Pakistanis like ganja brothers who can sell sugar there.
 
There wont be any prosperity, one just have to look at state of India. Much more poverty there compared to in Pakistan. It will benefit mostly India and few Pakistanis like ganja brothers who can sell sugar there.
on the elite businessmen can benefit from such deals and the poor will only suffer......
 
well that is where in my opinion hegemony and subversion come into play, Pakistan is neither as weak as Haiti nor is India as strong as the US albeit I get the point of your comparison and I acknowledge it, India is not the only gateway to economic prosperity, first we need to exploit all other options which are more viable at least from a nationalistic point of view and only after that should we go for India, its not like India is the only possible trade partner......:coffee:



sorry, I dont get the analogy you used, my English needs to improve I guess.....:D
As Musharraf used to say constitution is a piece of paper and without country you dont have one although you can have a country without one!

Point is you can have all your pride/honor/... etc. vis-a-vis India. But I question if it deep down it is something different. Pakistan and Pakistanis have been humiliated so many times by so many countries (including your best friend China, Saudi Arabia etc. etc.) and yet I don't see the same anti-trade sentiment against them. You guys rented out your army (and Zia ul Haq commanded that) to Jordan mid 70's I believe to crush the palestinians of all people in Jordan! Boy thats some pride. And then you raise slogans in support of Palestinians???? No wonder even they don't trust you. The list goes on and on and on .... Just google yourself.

And also for pride - I dont know of any country's citizens that dont proclaim pride - it is much better to be able to show whats there to be proud of. I know it will hurt but better to face reality than live in some cuckooland thinking you are the best thing that happened since sliced-bread. Instead of blowing your own trumpet about yourselves and your history, let others speak. And there you draw a BIG zero.

It is not that India is very prosperous but they are producing something the world wants and is respected a whole lot better than Paks. If you dont believe me ask your other citizens who travel abroad.
 
Yes we need to realize that taking the initiative (as we have done time and time again) will definitely be seen as bowing to Indian subversion,the Indian government in its arrogance will never take us as equals and that is the bitter truth the Sharifs need to realize, prosperity in exchange for selling our pride is prosperity not needed......:coffee:
business is between private parties and GoI cannot humiliate you even if they want to, coz they have no control over private entities.
so if a trader in India wants to take advantage cement price gap between India and pakistan and want to import he will be able to do so. same goes for Indian goods that a trader wants to import to pakistan
businessmen are rational people and think about money only.
 

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