Should India be allowed transit trade?

New York, NY, United States, June 17 — The recent Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed between Mr. Karzai and Mr. Zardari allows India access to Afghanistan through Pakistan, along the 540-mile trek from Wagah to Torkham. This access is being given to India without the consent of Parliament and without much discussion in the CNN-inspired media in Pakistan. It was hidden in the Afghanistan-Pakistan transit trade agreement’s MOU. While Mr. Zardari's government tried to hide the "regional" scope of the Afghanistan-Pakistan agreement, Mr. Karzai, the “Mayor of Kabul,” spilled the beans. Pakistanis all over the world are fuming. Even Bangladeshis are perplexed at this strange commercial deal signed by Mr. Zardari.

It is very obvious that the deal is contentious on many counts. First of all, it is not an agreement yet. Right now it a memorandum of understanding, which has no legal standing. Secondly, it is a huge security concern for the Pakistan Army to quietly watch Indian-made Tata trucks rumbling through Pakistan and traveling on Pakistani freeways. Indian arms have flooded the Federally Administered Tribal Areas and the Swat region; how many more Indian arms will be tolerated by Islamabad? Thirdly, the Indian goods transported through Pakistan will be directly competing with Pakistani goods being exported to Afghanistan. Fourthly, the Pakistani freeway system was not built for NATO supply lines, nor was it built for Indian trade. The purpose of the Pakistani roads is primarily to serve Pakistani businessmen, not Indian businesses. Fifthly, it is a matter of fact that most goods exported to Afghanistan end up being smuggled back into Pakistan. Darra and Landi Kotal are bases that feed the pipeline to Sohrab Goth in Karachi and all over Pakistan. If transit trade is given to India, the Pakistani industry will face many challenges from cheap and shoddy Bharti goods dumped into the Pakistani market. Sixthly, Pakistan gets no advantage from the transit trade, because neither Nepal nor Bangladesh offers any type of market to Pakistan. Pakistan can cheaply export goods to Bangladesh via existing sea channels that have worked well in the past. Seventhly, it is strange that India did not allow land routes to Pakistan from 1947-1971, yet now asks for transit concessions from Pakistan without any reciprocal deal regarding Kashmir.

All Pakistan-phobes may not Indians, but all Indians are surely Anti-Pakistani. The unbounded glee of Indians around the world and in India about Pakistan's troubles in the Swat region or anywhere else tell us reams about who their sympathies are with. After the blast at the Marriot, the Indian foreign minister pretty much said, "Pakistanis get what they deserve." This is the theme in Indian newspapers and blogs around the world. In the past 30 years, this author has never found an Indian who had anything good to say about Pakistan. A Google search may be unscientific, but it will surely prove to the world who Pakistan's real enemies are.

There is a concerted effort on the part of the “fifth column” in Pakistan to sell transit trade to India. One of the chief proponents of Delhi's interests in Pakistan is, of course, Dr. Ayesha Siddiqa, who has shown her true colors. Ms. Ayesha Siddiqa sold Pakistan Army secrets to India (after working for the Pakistani Department of Defense for years), stayed in Delhi for an extended period of time, and had her anti-Pakistan books published in Hindustani. In her June 5th column on Dawn.com, she wrote extensively about the trade agreement selling the point of view of Hindustani-speaking businessmen. Pakistanis have also come to expect pro-Indian rhetoric from Najam Sethi of The Daily Times, which comes as no surprise. After all, Mr. Sethi, a darling of the West, is part of the same “fifth column” that has never kept Pakistani interests supreme.

For six decades, Pakistan has refused India transit concessions until the issue of Kashmir is resolved. Pakistanis should vehemently impress upon the Zardari government that only Parliament can make such huge decisions, and that this MOU should never see the light of day.