"Why Pakistan Shy Of Granting MFN Status To India"

 It was unfortunate that Pakistan had to be our immediate neighbour after partition of "united India or Bharat".  Pakistan has got separate status of independent country from India that they will live peacefully and progress tremendously with his neighbor India but that could not happen.  

Though, India has progressed manifolds in its economy and raising standard of common Indian despite "population bomb and countering terrorism", the condition of common men in our neighbour Pakistan  has not improved considerably after partition due to their government wrong policies and supporting terrorism.

Both neighbours had to fought 4 war since 1947 for gain of nothing except escalation of hatred themselves. In past, many times,  both countries tried to come closer but hard cores and fundamentalists always did awkward terrorism work in India territory that spoiled the relation between them again and again.

In order to give boost to India-Pak relationship, India granted MFN (Most Favoured nation) but it is unfortunate that it took 15 years to Pakistan to merely agree principally to grant India MFN status reciprocally, but till date has not been granted in reverse interest of citizens of Pakistan.

Mary McAleese while quoting about neighbour  said: “That past is still within our living memory, a time when neighbour helped neighbour, sharing what little they had out of necessity, as well as decency”.

Presently, a trade fare is being organised in Lahore which is drawing huge crowd in Pakistan  but could not be of any help to Indian industry unless MFN status is not granted to India for free and fair trade.

Commerce Minister Amin Fahim and his Indian counterpart Anand Sharma witnessed the signing ceremony of the agreements, which would ensure confidence-building of the business community on both sides of the border and enable the two countries to address the issues related to non-tariff barriers systematically.

Citizens of both countries failed to understand that why the government of Pakistan bow before the fundamentalists in improving relationship with his neighbour-India which can not only prove lucrative to the citizens of Pakistan but also boost the doldrums economy of Pakistan by saving billions of dollars.

If it is not foolish than even not wise step also that why Pakistan purchases Suzuki Alto cars or others goods in double price from Japan when he can easily purchase the cars from its neighbour in half price.  India is now hub for exporting the medicine to USA and China but Pakistan is paying seven times prices to USA for purchasing medicine which they can comfortably import from India by road route which is hardly half an hour journey from Amritsar to Lahore.

Similarly, the Pakistan is short of sugar and tea while India is abundant in both, even than Pakistan is shying and reluctant to buy from India at cheaper price. At present, Pakistan imports only 1,963 items from India against about 9,000 items that it imports from other nations. Why Pakistan is wasting its meager foreign exchange and cursing its citizen with high priced goods is not understandable.

If the proposal gets approved, and the MFN status is granted to India by Pakistan Government, at the most  about 350 items will be barred from being imported into Pakistan from India. Currently, only 2,000 items are allowed to be imported into Pakistan. So, around 45,00 items will be free for export from India to Pakistan after MFN status been granted.

Presently, India-Pakistan  formal bilateral trade is currently a nearly $3 billion;   which could have been turned into 14 billion dollars in year to come after the granting of the status of MFN to India. This will not only boost India trade to its neighbour but also reduce the burden on meagre foreign exchange reserve of Pakistan which merely depends upon USA aid and IMF or Asian Bank. The sore relationship between America and Pakistan in the issue of supporting terrorist in Pakistan territory has already  compelled USA government to cut aid to Pakistan.

The Pakistan foreign reserve has already come down to nearly "US$12.50 billion". Already, the USA in an revenge to Pakistan has cut further $700 million in aid  to punish the country for allowing radicals to smuggle material used to make improvised explosive devices through its territory and into Afghanistan. In the past, the United States has allocated about $20 billion in security and economic aid to Pakistan since 2001, much of it as reimbursements for assistance in fighting terrorists.

According to one estimate, India and Pakistan together stand to save a minimum of 55 percent of their import bills on about 200 product categories, reducing the consumption expenditure in both countries by more than $800 million per year, than why Pakistan is shying to grant MFN status to India.

Pakistan is in old habit  to work in reverse gear to cripple its economy and crush its population with inflation and to provide high priced goods in total reverse to the world trend where whole world is looking for cheaper goods to cut down the high prices and save its foreign reserves.

___________________________________________________________ "Democracy means- A government of the people, by the vote of the people, by the money of the people, and for the welfare of the people". Thanks