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| Former Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf (right) with Assocham president Sajjan Jindal in New Delhi on Sunday. Picture by Rajesh Kumar |
New Delhi, March 8: Former President of Pakistan Pervez Musharraf today said his country could be the trade corridor linking South Asian countries, Central Asia and (western) China, for which it was important that disputes between India and Pakistan ended swiftly.
“This century is the century of geo-economics. It’s the economy which will drive nations towards development and people towards their welfare,” he said at a luncheon organised by industry body Assocham.
He said India and Pakistan needed to settle their differences so that the subcontinent could take advantage of the Asian century — a term coined by western thinkers who see emerging Asian countries led by India and China dominating global affairs in the future.
However, beyond trade, there has been no significant co-operation between India and Pakistan. Suspicions between the neighbours are coming in the way of the proposed Iran-Pakistan-India pipeline for gas and the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India pipeline.
“Are we South Asians ready to be part of this Asian century?” Musharraf asked. “We are out of the loop because of the conflict between India and Pakistan.”
Analysts said Musharraf’s linking of peace to trade was his way of projecting himself as a moderate leader and more capable of running Pakistan than the present regime.
“We can have permanent peace through the resolution of disputes. Peace and harmony are preconditions to improving business ties.”
Musharraf said that trade between the two nations had increased sharply during his regime. Goods imported from India increased to 1,400 from 200, while in dollar terms trade was nearly $2 billion by the end of 2008.
However after the Mumbai terror attacks, there are apprehensions of trade taking a beating.
A survey conducted by Ficci says trade between the two nations may contract to $900 million in 2009-2010, because of fear psychosis among businessmen.
