Saarc fences

The two biggest stumbling blocks for Pakistan and its hope to use Saarc as an avenue to economic prosperity are our relations with India and Afghanistan. Nawaz, for example, talked of the South Asian Economic Union which would establish a free trade zone but ignored how that is impossible right now. For a free trade union to be set up, there has to be free movement of goods and people. Even ignoring how visa-free travel cannot even be imagined between Pakistan and India, most Saarc countries are busy building fences instead of taking them down.

Pakistan and Afghanistan continually accuse each other of sending militants, drugs, guns and smuggled goods across the border while skirmishes along the LoC are routine. Bangladesh, angered by Pakistan’s condemnation of its execution of Jamaat-e-Islami leaders, has made it harder than ever before for us to get visas. Pakistan does not allow its territory to be used as a transit point for goods going from Afghanistan to India and vice versa. Meanwhile, Narendra Modi’s India is more determined than ever to be a regional bully. In this atmosphere, the best one can hope for from meetings like this conference is for all countries to continue talking to each other so that incremental progress can be made in the future

Nasir Hasan

Karachi