‘Indian, Pakistani premiers’ interest in trade may help ease tensions’

Karachi
The prime minister of both India and Pakistan are “corporate friendly” since trade also serves their own interests, and this is why the strained relationship between the two countries might witness a swift improvement.
This was stated by Indian journalist Jatin Desai while speaking at a dialogue held on Monday to discuss the possible options for ensuring peace and friendly relations between India and Pakistan.
He expressed the hope that talks between both countries would resume, since trade was the only available avenue and the premiers of both countries were in its favour.
“But the current trade volume between India and Pakistan way less than that of between India and Bangladesh,” Desai said. “The inter-Saarc trade is also less than the trade volume among other regions like ASEAN and the European Union.”
According to the Indian journalist, the prime ministers of both India and Pakistan were ‘corporate friendly’ and their own interests also lay in increasing trade between both countries.
He hoped that the prime minister would attend the United Nations General Assembly’s annual meeting later this month when both leaders were expected to meet on the sidelines. He said the resumption of India-Pakistan talks at the level of secretaries was the need of the hour.
The dialogue was hosted by the Pakistan India People's Forum for Peace and Democracy’s (PIPFPD) Sindh chapter at the Jinnah Medical and Dental College.
Peace activists, artists, writers and film-makers of from and India on Monday underlined the need for easing border tensions between the two countries, saying the people did not want a war but desired peace, development and prosperity.
Noted writer Amar Jaleel said there were two groups of people in India and Pakistan. The first group was the common people who wanted peace and brotherly relations with their neighbour and easy movement between the two. But the other group was of the elite rulers whose survival depended on intensifying tensions for their nefarious designs. “The second group of people in both countries have shared interests so they keep the strain alive despite their apparent enmity. However, they also advocate trade for it serves their interests,” he said. “But I am hopeful that tension between India and Pakistan would ease with the passage of time.”
Indian film-maker Mahesh Bhutt while speaking on Skype from Mumbai shared Jaleel’s views and said common people liked each other’s art and films. “The box office success of Bajrangi Bhaijan is proof that people like messages for brotherly relations between India and Pakistan,” he said. “On the contrary, another film Phantom was a failure even at the Indian box office which indicated that people did not like the message.”
Artiste Sheema Kermani gave an overview of the tense situation between India and Pakistan. She said Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah was a secular leader who did not want to make Pakistan a religiously fundamental country. She said that by promoting art and culture, the people would come close.