A good signal, but a lot more needed

External affairs minister S.M. Krishna’s two-day Pakistan visit that ended Saturday has had some meaningful outcomes. The most obvious is the decision to enable the two nations’ businessmen to travel across the border more freely. For nearly a decade business people on both sides have realised that much good can happen through such contacts, enormously benefiting the two economies. Besides, enhancement of India-Pakistan commercial exchanges can potentially integrate the Saarc region as a whole with far greater alacrity, possibly paving the way for meaningful financial cooperation through banks, investment instruments and stock markets.
A glimpse of this vision is already permissible, with India recently clearing foreign direct investment from Pakistan. The two nations are also talking about permitting each others’ banks to open shop. Taken together, these constitute a confidence-building measure of reasonable magnitude. Theoretically, it is foreseeable that India will permit goods from Pakistan to other Saarc countries through Indian territory. If Pakistan reciprocates, we can have commodities from Kabul to Dhaka transiting through Islamabad and New Delhi. It is an exciting vision.
The logic of Pakistan’s military leadership had earlier come in the way of affording ease of business — which the new visa regime will service. The military sought resolution of the Kashmir question before commercial and trade ties could be constructed. Pakistan’s uncommonly serious economic and other difficulties in recent times have apparently obliged the military brass to shed its insistence on “the unwritten agenda of Partition” to be fulfilled (Kashmir) before any other matter can be approached. In this case at least, therefore, life has been a great teacher.
Besides opening up the visa regime for business, the authorities on both sides have also sought to promote pilgrimages (religious tourism) and group tours, and visa on arrival for those above 65. Taken together, these ideas go well beyond people-level travel freedoms (utilised typically by divided families) that existed before the 1965 war. We may only pray that the oft-repeated sentiment of Pakistan’s articulate foreign minister Hina Rabbani Khar, that we cannot remain prisoners of history, is taken forward. This means ending terrorist wars against India and serious application of mind to deal with the Kashmir issue.
Can this happen with the military being the bailiff of the Pakistani state remains a pertinent question. But let us acknowledge that the loosening up of the stifling visa regime is a breath of fresh air. Still, it should be borne in mind that no Indian Prime Minister can travel to Pakistan until some evidence of the prosecution of the perpetrators of the 26/11 Mumbai attacks is at hand.

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