SAND98-0505/3

UC-900

March 1998

Movements of People, Ideas,

Trade, and Technology:

Toward a Peaceful Coexistence

of India and Pakistan

Samina Ahmed

Consultant, The Asia Foundation,

Islamabad, Pakistan

Suranjan Das

Professor, University of Calcutta,

Calcutta, India

Cooperative Monitoring Center Occasional Paper/3

Sandia is a multiprogram laboratory operated

by Sandia Corporation, a Lockheed Martin

Company, for the United States Department of

Energy under contract DE-AC04-94AL85000.
Movements of People, Ideas, Trade, and Technology:

4

The Cooperative Monitoring Center (CMC) at Sandia National Laboratories assists political and

technical experts from around the world to acquire the technology-based tools they need to

assess, design, analyze and implement nonproliferation, arms control and other cooperative

security measures. As part of its mission, the CMC sponsors research on cooperative security

and the role of technology. Reports of that work are provided through the Occasional Papers

series. Research is conducted by Sandia staff as well as visiting scholars. The CMC visiting

scholars program is administered by the Institute for Public Policy at the University of New

Mexico. For additional information on the programs of the CMC, visit the CMC home page on

the World Wide Web at <http://www.cmc.sandia.gov> or write to:

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For specific information on this report contact:

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This report was prepared by Sandia National Laboratories

Albuquerque, NM 87185 and Livermore, CA 94550
Toward a Peaceful Coexistence of India and Pakistan

5

Movements of People, Ideas, Trade, and Technology:

Toward a Peaceful Coexistence of India and Pakistan

Abstract

The potential exists for peaceful and constructive bilateral relations between India and

Pakistan. Domestic developments in both countries, the changing global economic and

political environment, and structural changes in regional trading patterns have created

new opportunities for replacing traditional Indian and Pakistani perceptions of hostility

and suspicion with mutual understanding and trust. This substitution process can be

accelerated by increasing people-to-people contact, the free flow of information, and

economic and technological cooperation between the two neighbors.

Nonmilitary confidence building measures could create conditions for an incremental

reduction on tensions between India and Pakistan. A popular consciousness for enhanced

bilateral cooperation is growing. This process could be strengthened by identifying and

exploring new areas of mutually beneficial cooperation that could pave the way for peace.
Movements of People, Ideas, Trade, and Technology:

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Toward a Peaceful Coexistence of India and Pakistan

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Contents

1. INTRODUCTION .....................................................................................................................................9

2. MOVEMENTS OF PEOPLE .................................................................................................................11

2.1 A NEW DIALOGUE FOR PEACE ............................................................................................................11

2.2 UNOFFICIAL DIPLOMACY .....................................................................................................................12

2.3 SOUTH ASIAN REGIONALISM................................................................................................................12

2.4 OFFICIAL BARRIERS.............................................................................................................................13

2.5 POTENTIAL OPTIONS AND OPPORTUNITIES...........................................................................................14

3. FLOW OF INFORMATION..................................................................................................................16

3.1 THE CURRENT STATE OF THE FLOW OF IDEAS AND INFORMATION.......................................................16

3.2 UNOFFICIAL DIALOGUE, REGIONAL INITIATIVES, AND CROSS-BORDER COMMUNICATION...................17

3.3 TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS AND PROSPECTS FOR THE FUTURE.................................................18

4. CROSS-BORDER TRADE.....................................................................................................................19

4.1 BILATERAL COOPERATION IN TRADE AND COMMERCE: A PLAUSIBLE SCENARIO ...............................20

4.1.1 The Legacy..................................................................................................................................20

4.1.2 New Prospects.............................................................................................................................21

5. COOPERATIVE TECHNOLOGICAL RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN INDIA AND PAKISTAN:

 A STEP FORWARD ...............................................................................................................................24

5.1 TECHNO-INDUSTRIAL COOPERATION: NEW HOPES..............................................................................25

5.2 JOINT INDUSTRIAL VENTURES .............................................................................................................26

5.3 ENVIRONMENTAL TECHNOLOGICAL COLLABORATION.........................................................................27

6. TOWARD A SOUTH ASIAN PEACE ..................................................................................................28

7. ABOUT THE AUTHORS.......................................................................................................................28
Movements of People, Ideas, Trade, and Technology:

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Acronyms

CBM confidence building measures

CMC Cooperative Monitoring Center

FICCI Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industries

FISME Federation of Indian Micro Small and Medium Enterprises

FPCCI Federation of Pakistan Chamber of Commerce and Industry

FPCTC Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Traders and Cottage Industries

MFN Most Favored Nation

MOU Memorandum of Understanding

RCSS Regional Center for Strategic Studies

SAARC South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation

SAFTA South Asian Free Trade Area

SAPTA South Asian Preferential Trading Arrangement
Toward a Peaceful Coexistence of India and Pakistan

9

Movements of People, Ideas, Trade,

and Technology:

Toward a Peaceful Coexistence of India and Pakistan

1. Introduction

As recently as 1997, a peace dialogue has been launched by the political leaderships of

India and Pakistan, creating new opportunities to restructure relations along peaceful

lines, breaking the diplomatic stalemate of the past decade. Complex political and

security issues will have to be resolved before the two countries can fully normalize their

relations. A step-by-step approach can, however, be adopted to initiate confidence

building measures in nonmilitary areas, with the objective of establishing a more

cooperative relationship that will help to reduce tensions, creating, in turn, a favorable

atmosphere for more substantive negotiations on contentious issues such as Kashmir.1

An essential component of this process will be the replacement of traditional perceptions

of hostility and suspicion with mutual understanding and trust. This process can be

accelerated by increasing people-to-people contact, the free flow of information, and

economic and technological cooperation between the two countries. This paper assesses

and identifies options for expanding such bilateral interaction and examines political and

technological mechanisms that could be used to contain and counter hindrances to such

bilateral interaction.

After a three-year period of noncommunication, India and Pakistan reopened their

diplomatic dialogue to discuss their bilateral differences as their foreign secretaries met in

New Delhi in April 1997. The dialogue continued when the Indian Prime Minister Inder

K. Gujral and his Pakistani counterpart Mian Nawaz Sharif held their first formal meeting

in May 1997 at the summit of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation

(SAARC) in New Delhi. Since the May summit, several meetings have been held

between the Indian and Pakistani leaderships and higher bureaucracies. Although there

has been no major breakthrough in the relationship, the continuation of the dialogue

indicates commitment on the part of both countries to find avenues of resolving or, at the

very least, containing bilateral tensions and exploring opportunities for cooperation.

This new climate of peace results from domestic developments in both countries

including democratic governance and the liberalization of previously controlled and

centralized economies. The post-Cold War international environment is equally favorable

because all major extra-regional actors, including the United States, Russia, and China,

 

1

 Endorsing incremental improvement of India-Pakistan relations in areas such as the movement of people,

visas, trade, and communication at a news conference in New Delhi, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan

stressed, “we should go ahead and resolve those issues we can to build goodwill, and in time resolve all the

issues. You do not refuse to move ahead because you cannot resolve the most difficult issue. . .” The News,

April 8, 1997.
Movements of People, Ideas, Trade, and Technology:

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support a peaceful resolution of Indo-Pakistani differences.2

 New opportunities have

emerged as a result of this changed atmosphere. This document:

• examines the possibilities for restructuring governmental policies that

have previously acted as constraints on increased cooperation between

India and Pakistan, and thereby permit a freer exchange of peoples across

national frontiers.

• analyzes bilateral and unilateral concerns, including the flow of illegal

immigrants.

• identifies cooperative monitoring mechanisms that could assuage official

fears that have restricted the movements of people.

• assesses the present state of information flows, including the media

policies of the two countries.

• examines the significance of new information technology for the

dissemination of ideas.

The promotion of bilateral economic and technological cooperation will lay the

foundation for an enduring peace, because increased economic interdependence will

necessitate the normalization of political relations. Changed international, regional, and

internal dynamics have created new opportunities for enhancing economic and technical

collaboration. In the post-Cold War world, reduced Western financial assistance and the

existence of economic regional groupings in Europe, Asia, and North America are forcing

India and Pakistan to rely increasingly on bilateral and regional economic and

technological linkages for sustaining their economic growth. Evidence of progress toward

this goal includes the positive response to the creation of a South Asian free-trade area

and the incremental expansion of bilateral economic interaction. Prospects for

technological cooperation have also increased as a result of new opportunities arising

from changed unilateral and bilateral dynamics as well as the availability of new

technologies.

At the same time, however, concerns must be addressed to sustain the momentum of such

cooperation and to fully exploit new options and opportunities. Thus, existing

infrastructural and policy-related impediments will have to be removed and alternative

avenues explored. Nonmilitary confidence building measures such as increased peopleto-people contact, the free flow of information, and enhanced economic and technological

collaboration will reduce bilateral tensions and promote détente.

 

2

 Dr. Maleeha Lodhi, “Talk about Talks,” The News, April 5, 1997; K.K. Katyal, “Hopes of a Thaw in

Indo-Pakistan Ties,” The Hindu, February 4, 1997.
Toward a Peaceful Coexistence of India and Pakistan

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2. Movements of People

Recent diplomatic initiatives by the governments of New Delhi and Islamabad have

generated new hopes for a peaceful resolution of Indo-Pakistani differences. Confidence

building measures should also help to create additional constituencies with an inherent

stake in peace. As a first step, both governments could negotiate ways of expanding

people-to-people contacts.

Any progress toward peace requires reducing mutual suspicions and hostility at the

official level and within segments of civil society. While dialogue among policy makers

(including parliamentarians and bureaucrats) is vital, an informed public is equally

essential to change the Cold War mind-set in both countries. Greater interaction between

Indian and Pakistani opinion makers and other individuals, groups, and organizations in

civil society is an essential requirement for developing an informed public opinion.

Fear of a domestic backlash through the manipulation of public opinion by internal

opponents has always posed major challenges for the Indian and Pakistani political

leaderships whenever past attempts have been undertaken to restructure their bilateral

relationship.3

 Mutual ignorance and prejudices are the product of decades of separation

caused by state policies that discouraged cross-border movement. People-to-people

contacts can provide Indian and Pakistani officials with informal avenues for exploring

new ideas and initiatives without fear of domestic repercussions.

2.1 A New Dialogue For Peace

The series of high-level and high-profile meetings held between the Indian and Pakistani

leaderships and bureaucracies has begun to prepare the ground for a change in public

perceptions. Pakistan’s Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and India’s Prime Minister I.K.

Gujral held high profile meetings at the May 1997 Male summit, at the United Nations

General Assembly session in September 1997, and at the Commonwealth Heads of State

and Government summit in Edinburgh in October 1997. In public statements at domestic

and international forums, the Indian and Pakistani prime ministers repeatedly emphasized

the need to normalize relations. Although India’s United Front government was dissolved

in December 1997 and elections are due in February 1998, any future Indian government

is unlikely to abandon the peace dialogue that serves the national interests of both states.

There is also an ongoing dialogue between the higher bureaucracies of India and Pakistan.

Given the task of identifying potential opportunities for promoting mutual cooperation

and removing present constraints in bilateral relations, foreign secretary-level meetings,

for example, are examining ways of enhancing people-to-people contacts, acknowledging

the importance of mutual interaction.

 

3

 Zafar Abbas, “Breaking the Ice,” The Herald, March 1997, pp. 32-33.
Movements of People, Ideas, Trade, and Technology:

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2.2 Unofficial Diplomacy

People-to-people contacts through track-two and track-three diplomacy have also begun

to prepare the Pakistani and Indian public for an end to the long-standing diplomatic

impasse. Several track-two and track-three dialogues have been underway since the early

1990s.4

Defined as “a process of unofficial dialogues between disputing polities conducted

directly or with the help of a third party, by influential citizens who normally have access

to their governments and/or an ability to influence public opinion,”5

 track-two diplomacy

is carried on at informal forums by unofficial actors with access to policy-making circles.

These informal channels of communication are aimed at identifying alternative policy

options that would help to break the India-Pakistan diplomatic impasse.6

 Many of the

track-two dialogues have been sponsored by the United States, which is motivated by the

desire to contain tensions and to prevent conflict between the two nuclear-capable states.

Track-three diplomacy has been initiated by individuals and groups within civil society in

India and Pakistan, “aiming to build constituencies for peace which can question

conventional practices and beliefs and present alternatives to official government

positions.”7

 The objectives of track-three diplomacy are to promote mutual understanding

through people-to-people contacts, to diffuse existing and latent tensions by creating an

informed public opinion, and to use public pressure on governments to restructure their

bilateral relations.

2.3 South Asian Regionalism

The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), a seven-member body

formed in 1985, provides another channel of official and unofficial communication

between the Indian and Pakistani governments and peoples. Although the SAARC

Charter excludes politically contentious issues from the organization’s agenda, quiet

diplomacy, such as bilateral meetings between the Indian and Pakistani prime ministers,

has successfully defused some tensions. SAARC has placed special significance on

expanding people-to-people interaction. This includes the roles played by SAARC’s

affiliated associations, including the Association of SAARC Speakers and

 

4

 Inventory of South Asian unofficial dialogues in Navnita Chadha Behera, Paul M. Evans and Gowher

Rizvi, Beyond Boundaries: A Report on the State of Non-Official Dialogues on Peace, Security and

Cooperation in South Asia (Joint Center for Asia Pacific Studies, University of Toronto, Toronto, 1997),

pp. 62-98.

5

 Sundeep Waslekar, Track-Two Diplomacy in South Asia (ACDIS Occasional Paper, Program in Arms

Control, Disarmament and International Security, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Champaign,

Second Edition, 1995), p. 1.

6

 Sandeep Waslekar, op.cit., p. 5.

7

 Navnita Chada Behera, Paul M. Evans, Gowher Rizvi, op.cit., p. 19.
Toward a Peaceful Coexistence of India and Pakistan

13

Parliamentarians and SAARC Law, in advancing regional exchanges among influential

segments of South Asian policy and opinion-making circles. SAARC has also instituted

various regional mechanisms to promote people-to-people contacts, discussed in greater

detail in this section.

Unofficial channels of communication have had mixed results in creating greater mutual

trust. Several of the ongoing track-two and track-three dialogues exist only on paper.

Moreover, many unofficial track-two dialogues are restricted to selected retired civil and

military bureaucrats or co-opted academics and merely serve as channels for the

reiteration of official perceptions and views. No real attempt is made to identify or

suggest options that could reduce bilateral tensions. Nor do such dialogues foster a

climate for peace among the Indian and Pakistani people, since the public is deliberately

kept uninformed about the results of the dialogues. Some track-two activities, such as the

USIA-sponsored traveling seminars, are more open to the public, and thus have greater

internal credibility. They have, however, been limited to segments of the Indian and

Pakistani opinion-making elite and have so far had little or no impact, beyond that of

pressure on governments.

Track-three activities have helped to create links between segments of civil society in

both states. There are, for example, regular exchanges of delegations by the IndiaPakistan People’s Forum for Peace and Democracy, a key track-three actor.8

 Although

track-three activities have created legitimacy for and acceptance of the role of unofficial

dialogue between the Indian and Pakistani people, governmental mistrust of these

dialogues has limited their effectiveness in influencing policymakers.

2.4 Official Barriers

The effectiveness of people-to-people undertakings is severely undermined by officially

imposed restrictions. Participants in track-two and track-three activities often face

difficulties in obtaining visas. The visa regime in India and Pakistan is a major barrier. As

a result, succeeding generations of Indians and Pakistanis have little or no first-hand

knowledge of each other, which perpetuates images based on hostility and suspicion.

According to the India-Pakistan bilateral visa regime, visitors can enter only from fixed

points. Despite long land borders, there are no road links. Only one biweekly train

service, the Samjhauta Express, crosses the border at a single point, Wagah-Attari, via

Amritsar in the Indian Punjab and Lahore, the capital of Pakistan’s Punjab province.9

Entry by air or by sea is restricted to a limited number of entry points and the same entry

 

8

 The India-Pakistan People’s Forum, composed of a cross-section of Indian and Pakistani society

including journalists, lawyers, politicians, trade unionists, and social activists, has so far held annual

conventions in Lahore, New Delhi, and Calcutta. The Calcutta Declaration of the Forum, issued in

December 1996, calls for bilateral agreements on free travel across the India-Pakistan border and reduction

of communication and travel costs and free exchange of information and publications. The Island, January

24, 1997.

9

 Pakistani passengers are taken straight to New Delhi and are not allowed to disembark en route.
Movements of People, Ideas, Trade, and Technology:

14

and exit points must be used.10 Travel within India and Pakistan is restricted to a limited

number of cities, and permission for specific cities must be acquired in advance.

Cumbersome police reporting procedures for Indian and Pakistani visitors do little to

promote goodwill between visitor and host.

In 1997, India made unilateral travel concessions, including (1) visas for Pakistani tourist

groups, (2) one-year multiple entry visas for businessmen, who would be allowed to exit

either though Mumbai or Delhi, (3) exemption from police reporting for senior Pakistani

citizens, and (4) a waiver of visa fees for some categories of visitors, including journalists

and students.11 These concessions are still too limited to affect the majority of Pakistani

visitors. Pakistan has not reciprocated this symbolic gesture.

Under the aegis of SAARC, visa exemptions for categories of South Asian citizens

include the senior judiciary, parliamentarians, the heads of national academic institutions,

and heads of chambers of commerce and industry. Although the SAARC exemption

scheme is limited to the political and economic elite, attempts are underway to increase

these categories.

Both states strongly resist unrestricted movement of Indian and Pakistani citizens across

their respective national borders and within their national territories. Even participants in

officially approved track-two dialogues find their activities hampered by bureaucratic

delays in obtaining visas as well as by internal travel restrictions and by hindrances such

as police reporting. In both countries, bureaucratic resistance to free movement and

access is often justified by claims that unrestricted movement may threaten national

security by encouraging terrorist infiltration or espionage.12 Other justifications include

the desire to curb the influx of illegal economic migrants,13 and the necessity to counter

smuggling and the cross-border traffic in arms and narcotics.

2.5 Potential Options and Opportunities

Continuing the present peace dialogue could help to address national security concerns

regarding hostile activities such as terrorism or espionage. Until the two countries allow

free travel across their borders, some incremental measures could be taken to ease visa

restrictions and to provide greater travel options. As a first step, reopening the Indian

consulate general in Karachi and the Pakistani consulate general in Mumbai, shut down

during a period of increased tensions in 1994, would build confidence. The reopening of

 

10 Entry points by air are restricted to Karachi, Lahore, and Islamabad in Pakistan and Mumbai, New Delhi,

and Amritsar in India. Entry by sea is through the ports of Karachi (Pakistan) and Mumbai (India).

11 Announcing these concessions, Foreign Minister I.K. Gujral declared that this “major unilateral step”

was taken in “keeping with (the) Indian policy to promote people-to-people relations.” The Hindustan

Times, March 21, 1997; Dawn, March 21, 1997.

12 See, for example, views expressed by a former Indian official. Maloy Khrishna Dhar, “The ‘Third Track’

to Pakistan,” Indian Express, April 2, 1997.

13 In a statement before Parliament, the Pakistani Interior Minister, Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain claimed that

there were 100,000 illegal Indian immigrants in Karachi alone. Dawn, September 5, 1997.
Toward a Peaceful Coexistence of India and Pakistan

15

the consulates would also (1) reduce pressure on the Indian and Pakistani embassies in

New Delhi and Islamabad, thus expediting visa applications, and (2) lessen travel time for

citizens who apply for visas. Reopening the consulates would be particularly useful for

the business community, since both Mumbai and Karachi are major centers of finance

and commerce.

Other incremental measures14 to relax the visa regime include:

• Relaxing or eventually eliminating cumbersome police reporting procedures

• Gradually increasing the number of cities specified in the visa to allow freer

movement within national territories, followed by a removal of the ban

• Identifying new ports of entry, including air and rail links

Additional air or rail routes could be efficiently monitored either unilaterally or, if

political conditions permit, through collaborative means.15

India and Pakistan could also cooperatively monitor the cross-border movement of illegal

immigrants and create joint mechanisms to deal with traffic in smuggled goods, arms, and

narcotics. During the dialogue initiated by Prime Ministers Rajiv Gandhi and Benazir

Bhutto, an agreement was signed in 1989 for bi-annual meetings between the DirectorGeneral of the Pakistan Rangers and the Inspector General of the Indian Border Security

Force on issues such as cross-border smuggling, illegal border crossings, and drug

trafficking.16 According to one source, meetings held between Pakistani and Indian

Interior and Defense Secretaries had suggested “joint patrolling” or “parallel patrolling”

as one way to check illegal movement across the border. No attempt was made to give

concrete shape to these suggestions because the dialogue broke down in 1994.17

Since the resumption of the dialogue, these suggestions can be revived. Extensive

cooperative monitoring of their long common border is not economically feasible nor

politically desirable, because enhanced military presence in border areas increases

tensions. However, Indian and Pakistani security agencies could identify and jointly

monitor major access routes to curb activities such as smuggling and the traffic in

 

14 Many of these measures were suggested in the statement issued in Dhaka in June 1996 by the group of

eminent citizens of India and Pakisitan monitoring the Bangladesh parliamentary poll as members of the

SAARC observers’ team. “Dhaka Statement of Citizens of India and Pakistan,” Mainstream, July 6, 1996,

p. 19.

15 At present, Indian and Pakistani customs and immigration officials are responsible for clearing the

passengers. The crossing on both sides of the border, where a barbed wire fence has been erected, is also

policed by paramilitary forces.

16 Sumit Ganguly, “Mending Fences,” Michael Krepon and Amit Sevak, eds., Crisis Prevention,

Confidence Building, and Reconcilation in South Asia (A Henry L. Stimson Center Book, St, Martin’s

Press, New York, 1995), p. 13.

17 K.K. Katyal, “A Diary of Indo-Pakistan Talks,” The Nation, April 5, 1997.
Movements of People, Ideas, Trade, and Technology:

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narcotics and arms. Similarly, joint patrolling of demarcated sea lanes could remove a

long-standing source of tension between the two countries.

Indian and Pakistani fishermen frequently intrude, often inadvertently, into the territorial

waters of the other country because they are unable to discern demarcation lines. As a

result, scores of fishermen are arrested and their craft impounded by the security agencies

of both countries.18 In 1997, as a gesture of goodwill, the Sharif government released 38

underage Indian fishermen held in captivity for over three years.19 Soon after, however,

intruding fishermen and their craft were once again seized by both sides. Should India

and Pakistan agree to cooperatively police jointly defined and demarcated coordinates,

they could also curb smuggling, thereby institutionalizing a confidence building measure

that would also benefit their national economies.20

3. Flow of Information

Relaxing the curbs on cross-border movement is also essential for another important and

relatively neglected dimension of the ongoing peace process, the flow of ideas across

national frontiers. Exchange of information and ideas could play an important role in

replacing traditional perceptions of hostility and suspicion by mutual understanding. At

present, not only is transborder movement restricted, but both states also discourage

communication and the flow of ideas between the Indian and Pakistani peoples.

3.1 The Current State of the Flow of Ideas and Information

As a result of conscious government policies, media flows between the two countries

have been minimal. There is no exchange of newspapers, magazines, and other media

instruments. Difficulties in obtaining visas, internal restrictions on movement, and the

interference of state agencies combine to prevent members of the independent print media

from performing their duties.21 Because the electronic media is state-controlled in both

India and Pakistan, it serves the primary purpose of projecting official propaganda and

perpetuating official and often hostile perceptions.22 The flow of information and ideas

across national barriers is also minimal at the academic level because there are no direct

 

18 By Pakistani accounts, Indian coastal guards had detained 34 Pakistani boats and 233 crewmen from

1993 to January 1997. Asian Age, March 22, 1997. For an Indian perspective see R.K. Misra, “Pakistanis

are Fishing in Troubled Indian Waters,” Pioneer, December 22, 1996.

19 The Asian Age, March 22, 1997.

20 At the moment, there is no agreement between the two states on the exact coordinates determining the

limits of their territorial waters, continguous zones, exclusive economic zones, and the continental shelf.

Asian Age, November 28, 1996.

21 The number of journalists posted in the other country is decided by the Indian and Pakistani governments

and their internal movement is restricted by the city-specific visa policy.

22 According to a Pakistani journalist, both the Indian and the Pakistani governments fight a “proxy war”

through their state-controlled electronic media. Anjum Niaz, “The Road Not Taken: Pakistani Journalist’s

Perception of Indo-Pak Relations,” Mainstream, November 18, 1995, p. 7.
Toward a Peaceful Coexistence of India and Pakistan

17

exchanges, either in the form of personnel or publications between universities, thinktanks, and other institutions of learning. Very little information is available in each

country about the other. This mutual state of ignorance is further reinforced by illinformed academic texts, research publications, and print media analyses that shape elite

as well as mass opinion.23

As a consequence of these official impediments, centers of learning and the print media

are unable to prepare public opinion and to contribute to policy-making when the two

governments decide to change the directions of their bilateral relationship from hostility

to peace. Recognizing the need to address this problem, some steps have been taken to

facilitate bilateral access to information. The Gujral government, for example, permitted

the import of Pakistani books and periodicals, a measure which has yet to be reciprocated

by Pakistan.24

3.2 Unofficial Dialogue, Regional Initiatives, and Cross-border

Communication

Some track-two activities have attempted to bridge the information gap between the

independent Pakistani and Indian press media. Senior Indian and Pakistani journalists

participate in the USIA-sponsored traveling seminars. To avoid publishing inflammatory

or false information and to promote media availability in both countries, these journalists

have:

• held meetings in Indian and Pakistani cities, including Karachi, Islamabad,

Lahore, Mumbai and New Delhi in 1997; and,

• decided to work together to maximize accurate reporting.

Their objective is to create deeper understanding for building better relations.25 Visa and

travel restrictions hinder these goals.

While there is very little academic interaction between India and Pakistan, some progress

has been made through SAARC channels and South Asian regional institutes such as the

Regional Center for Strategic Studies (RCSS). The RCSS sponsors regional workshops

and collaborative research projects. SAARC has established chairs, fellowships, and

scholarships in Indian and Pakistani academic institutions. SAARC visa exemptions have

been granted to the heads of South Asian academic institutions and academies; and there

 

23 Sumit Ganguly, op.cit., pp. 19-20.

24 The Hindu, March 21, 1997.

25 Agreement has also been reached to establish a Pakistan-India Press Council. The Nation, March 20,

1997.
Movements of People, Ideas, Trade, and Technology:

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are suggestions to further expand academic categories in the SAARC visa exemption

scheme.26

Despite their willingness to support such measures in the SAARC forum, Indian and

Pakistani policy-makers selectively apply SAARC policies and bilateral initiatives. For

example, Indian and Pakistani state-controlled education bureaucracies have largely

ignored the December 1988 cultural agreement reached between Prime Ministers Bhutto

and Gandhi on the rewriting of history books to remove deliberate distortions and the

perpetuation of enemy images.

3.3 Technological Developments and Prospects for the Future

Policies of economic liberalization and new information and communications

technologies have begun to shrink the information gap, overcoming bureaucratic

resistance. For the past several decades, Indian and Pakistani audiences have relied on

foreign radio channels for information, revealing a lack of trust in the state-controlled

broadcast media. In the wake of economic liberalization, the state no longer exercises a

monopoly over television networks and privately-owned networks have been established.

Avenues of information have been further diversified because of foreign satellite

television networks. Satellite television channels have also brought Indian and Pakistani

television programs to viewers in both countries. Although official restrictions hamper

the print media, mainstream Indian and Pakistani newspapers are now available on the

Internet.27 The Internet has also opened new channels of information and communication

between Indians and Pakistanis, providing an alternative to slow and undependable postal

routes, and inadequate and unreliable land telecommunication links.

The significance of changed state media policies or the impact of new information and

communications technologies on the flow of ideas and information between India and

Pakistan must not, however, be over-estimated. Private managers of radio and television

networks, for the most part, take care to project state perceptions and views on sensitive

areas such as defense and foreign policy. Much of the new technology is subject to state

control and is accessible only to the Indian and Pakistani elite. Thus far, satellite

television has had little relevance to a majority of the population, which has, at best,

access to state-controlled television channels. Access to computer hardware and most

information technology is beyond the reach of most Indians and Pakistanis.

Communication via the information highway is monitored by state agencies, discouraging

an open dialogue between Indian and Pakistani users.

 

26 At the conference of SAARC tourism ministers in Colombo in October 1997, a proposal was made to

allow journalists visa-free travel within the SAARC region, while the Association of SAARC Speakers and

Parliamentarians, at their second conference in Islamabad in October 1997, recommended that visa

restrictions be eased to promote free movement in the region. The conference also recommended a South

Asia student dialogue and the exchange of data through e-mail and the Internet. Dawn, October 22, 1997;

October 29, 1997.

27 C. Raja Mohan, “Breaching the Indo-Pak Barrier: Try the Internet,” The Hindu, August 26, 1996.
Toward a Peaceful Coexistence of India and Pakistan

19

While an open exchange of ideas about military security issues on the Internet is likely to

remain the subject of official suspicion and vulnerable to official retribution, web sites

could be devoted to noncontroversial subjects such as health, education, and the

environment. The Association of SAARC Speakers and Parliamentarians has specifically

recommended the creation of a SAARC parliamentary website on the Internet, so that

regional parliamentarians are informed of developments within all regional states.28

Because economic ties will be central to sustained reconciliation between India and

Pakistan, information technologies can be used for exchanging ideas and data to assist

official and unofficial sectors in expanding cross-border trade.

4. Cross-Border Trade

South Asia is a site of multiple contradictions. It represents 3 percent of the world’s area,

but houses 21 percent of the global population. The region which is a repository of

richmostly untappednatural resources, has the potential to be the largest global

industrial market, and has a common cultural legacy. Yet, it remains plagued by poverty,

unemployment, and inadequate economic growth and social progress.

Resolution of developmental contradictions in India and Pakistan requires structural

change, in their political economies. But some short-term measures could be undertaken

for a balanced developmental process in the two countries. A mere 5 percent reduction in

the annual military budget of the two countries would release about US $2 billion which

could help fulfill basic social needs of the people in the region.29 But this cannot be

envisioned without a change in the relationship between India and Pakistan. A series of

military confidence building measures (CBMs), already attempted between the two

neighbors, has fallen far short of the desired results.30

The changing dynamics of the international political economy and regional politics in the

post-Cold War period have offered new opportunities and challenges for India-Pakistan

economic and technical collaboration. First, the demise of the Soviet Union and the end

of the Cold War has freed South Asia from external alliances that had divided India and

Pakistan. Second, current official Western financial assistance is directed mostly to the

successor states of the former Soviet bloc. The per capita international aid for South Asia

is presently only US $5. Third, while a recent World Bank report, “South Asia’s

Integration into the Global Economy,” predicts the region will have “the world’s fastest

growth in exports” by 2028, the rate of economic growth in major industrialized states is

likely to be relatively slower.31 This implies that India and Pakistan cannot count on their

 

28 Dawn, October 29, 1997.

29 Jayashree Sengupta, “South Asia Should Leap Frog to Catch Up with East Asia,” Business and Political

Observer, May 5, 1997; Mahbub-ul-Haq, Human Development in South Asia (Oxford University Press,

Oxford, 1997).

30 Samina Yasmeen and Aabha Dixit, Confidence-building Measures in South Asia (The Henry Stimson

Center Occasional Paper No. 24 September 1995).

31 South Asia’s Integration into the Global Economy (World Bank, Washington DC, 1997).
Movements of People, Ideas, Trade, and Technology:

20

traditional Western markets for their expanding economies. Fourth, regional economic

groupings like the North American Free Trade Agreement, the European Union, the

ASEAN Free Trade Area, the Central American Common Market, Latin American Free

Trade Area, the Central African Customs and Economic Union, the East African

Community, the Arab Common Market, the New Zealand-Australia Free Trade Area, and

Common Market of the Southern Cone will impede the expansion of Indian and Pakistani

commerce in those regions. Fifth, the end of the Soviet Union has shrunk India’s export

trade to Eastern Europe by 10 percent, making New Delhi look to South Asia for

compensation. Sixth, Pakistan’s traditional allies (the United States, China, and Iran) are

pushing Islamabad toward rapprochement with New Delhi. Finally, the recent structural

adjustment programs in both countries can only be sustained by economic competition

and not counterproductive military rivalries between the two neighbors.

Internal developments have created new domestic pressures in favor of cooperative

bilateral relations between India and Pakistan. In both countries, there is growing

awareness among an expanding middle class, intellectuals, and a young generation,

untouched directly by the trauma of partition, that cooperation is worth pursuing rather

than fighting wars. In addition, an expanding Indian middle class—the size being roughly

equivalent to the total U.S. population—is more interested in economic links with

Pakistan than sustaining military and political tensions. The existence of this potential

market has attracted the interest of Pakistani businessmen. Thus, business lobbies in both

countries have developed as pressure groups in favor of economic cooperation between

India and Pakistan.

4.1 Bilateral Cooperation in Trade and Commerce: A Plausible

Scenario

4.1.1 The Legacy

India and Pakistan were parts of the same economic unit. In the aftermath of partition,

more than 70 percent of Pakistan’s trading transactions were with India; 63 percent of

Indian exports were comprised of manufactured items, and 92 percent of Pakistani

imports consisted of food and raw materials.32 Political compulsions, however, resulted in

a decline of India-Pakistan official trade from Indian Rs. 1,850,000,000 in 1948-49 to an

all-time low of Indian Rs. 110,000,000 in 1965-66, which coincided with the second

India-Pakistan war.33

 

32 Rehman Sobhan, “Regional Economic Cooperation in South Asia: Legacy and Prospects,” Economic

Bulletin for Asia and Pacific, XXX, I, June 1979. See also Gowher Rizvi, South Asia in a Changing

International Order (Sage, New Delhi, 1993).

33 Money figures in this paper have not been converted to U.S. dollars because the value of the Indian

rupee has varied over time. These figures have been computed by I.N. Mukherji based on data from

Director General of Commercial Intelligence, Government of India. I.N. Mukherji, “Indo-Pakistan Trade:

Problems and Prospects,” Himalayan and Central Asian Studies, Vol. 1, No. 1, April-June 1997.
Toward a Peaceful Coexistence of India and Pakistan

21

The gradual severance of bilateral trading relations forced both Pakistan and India to

adopt economic blueprints that undermined their self-sufficiency. Pakistan imported coal,

steel, iron and even wheat from the West, China, and South Korea when it could have

secured these commodities from India at half the price. India also incurred a considerable

opportunity cost. For instance, areas more suitable for paddy cultivation were converted

to jute cropping when Pakistan prohibited the export of raw jute to India. New Delhi

imported pig iron and iron scrap from outside the region, although it could have been

purchased from Pakistan at lower transportation costs.

4.1.2 New Prospects

The changing structure of the international political economy in the post-Cold War era

and South Asian political and economic reform have opened up new prospects for IndiaPakistan commerce. Following an exchange of trade delegations, Pakistan agreed in July

1989 to allow import of 322 Indian items. By 1992-93, the value of India-Pakistan trade

had more than tripled, rising to Indian Rs. 5,230,000,000 from Indian Rs. 1,690,000,000

in 1990-91.34 The two sides also recognized the loss in state revenues from a thriving

informal underground trade across the border, with an estimated volume of Indian Rs. 16

billion a year, four times more than the official bilateral trade.35 The size of this informal

trade approaches Indian Rs. 20 billion per annum if supplies received by India and

Pakistan through third countries are taken into consideration. Indian textile machinery,

tannery equipment, chemical goods, cotton fabric, ayurvedic medicines, and cattle reach

Pakistan through suppliers based in Dubai, Hong Kong, and Singapore. Pakistani goods

entering India along unofficial routes include plastic goods, fiber fabrics, woolens,

vegetable oil, etc.36

In 1996, Pakistan enthusiastically participated in the first SAARC industrial exhibition in

Delhi. The Punjab-Harayana-Delhi Chambers of Commerce and the Federation of

Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industries cooperated in preparing an inventory for

expanding trade relations between India and Pakistan.37 The removal of hindrances to

open trade could create opportunities for the use of idle or surplus capacities in Indian and

Pakistani industries to meet the demands of a larger regional market.38 The two countries

are also negotiating for the right to transit through each other’s territories. While such an

agreement would provide India an easy access to Central Asian markets, it would also

expand Pakistan’s trade with Bangladesh, Bhutan, and Nepal.

 

34 News From The Indo-Pak Desk, Vol.X, December 1996 (PHD Chambers of Commerce and Industry,

New Delhi, 1996). Also see Sabahat Alam, “Indo-Pak Trade RelationsFrom India with Hope,” Pakistan

and Gulf Economist, May 8-14, 1993; and Sunday Mail, May 16-22, 1993.

35 I.N. Mukherji, op.cit. Also see Dawn, February 9, 1997.

36 Ibid.

37 News From The Indo-Pak Desk, op.cit. See Appendix - I.

38 Aurangzeb A. Khan, “India and Pakistan: Confidence Building Through Free Trade and Joint Ventures”

in Sony Devabhaktuni, ed., Regional Cooperation in South Asia: Prospects and Problems (The Henry L.

Stimson Center, Occasional Paper No. 32, February 1997).
Movements of People, Ideas, Trade, and Technology:

22

Structural changes in regional trading relations under the auspices of SAARC have also

accelerated the pace of Indo-Pakistan trade. Intra-regional South Asian trade is still very

low, comprising only 3.1 percent and 3.8 percent respectively of the total import and

export trade of regional states at a time when 63.4 percent of Western Europe’s global

commerce consists of intra-European Union trade. The South Asian Preferential Trading

Arrangement (SAPTA)—concluded in December 1995—has introduced integrative

trading arrangements based on differential tariff concessions for 226 commodities.39 In

the second round of SAPTA, India offered concessions to Pakistan for 375 items and

Pakistan reciprocated for 230 products. The SAARC Chambers of Commerce and

Industry envision a South Asian Economic Union40 which, the U.S.-based Center for

Trade Development estimates, would increase intra-SAARC trade five fold, from the

present $3 billion, to over $15 billion by the year 2000.41

Regrettably, the full potential for increased trade within the SAPTA-II framework still

remains unrealized. For instance, in 1995-96 India imported from Pakistan only 17 out of

the 375 products and exported only 37 of the 230 products that were granted preferential

concessions. In Pakistan, the multinationals and their indigenous collaborators, selling

over-priced consumer goods, have reportedly tried to sabotage the normalization of IndiaPakistan trade.42 There is also a perception that India has gained more from SAPTA-II

than Pakistan. Among the products for which India received tariff concessions, for

example, as many as 14 were already among the top fifty items exported to Pakistan.

Islamabad, however, received concessions for only 5 of the items that comprised the top

fifty products imported by India.43 Compared to Pakistan, moreover, India’s trade policy

is seen as less transparent, highly complex, and restrictive.44 Analysts now suggest that

for SAPTA to be effective, it should be converted into an “across-the-board trade

liberalization scheme.”45

Nevertheless, business groups in both countries are increasingly eager to tap a regional

market, second in size only to China. Common tastes and culture should facilitate a

regional market for goods produced in any part of the region.46 The feasibility of India-

 

39 Rajesh Mehta and Swapan K. Bhattacharya, “SAPTA-I and SAPTA-II: Impact on India’s Imports.”

Paper presented in a seminar on Economic Cooperation Among SAARC Countries: Challenges for Second

Decade (Center For SAARC Studies, Andhra University, March 24-26, 1997).

40 Sarkar Shah and Somen Mukerjee, “Vision, Goals and Strategies,” Sarkar Shah and Somen Mukerjee,

eds., Emerging South Asian Order (Media South Asia, Calcutta, 1997).

41 Ibid.

42 This is mostly seen in pharmaceuticals, tire industry, engineering sector, and automobile accessories.

Kamal Siddiqi, “Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea,” The Friday Times, April 3, 1997; Yusuf H.

Shirazi, “Trade with India: Pros and Cons,” The Sindh Tribune, March 4, 1997.

43 I.N. Mukherji, op.cit.

44 See Report on the Tripartite Brainstorming Session on Tripartite Study for Expansion of Economic

Cooperation in SAARC Region, ( Lahore, August 15, 1996).

45 Ibid.

46 Jayashree Sengupta, “SAARC Should Get Down To Business,” The Observer, August 12, 1996.
Toward a Peaceful Coexistence of India and Pakistan

23

Pakistan economic cooperation was demonstrated in the autumn of 1990 when India

helped Pakistan withstand a potato and onion shortage, after Islamabad’s effort to secure

imports from extra-regional sources proved unsuccessful; and again in 1997 India helped

Pakistan overcome a sugar shortfall. Many Indian businessmen are urging New Delhi to

unilaterally initiate open trade with Pakistan.47 India has already accorded Pakistan Most

Favored Nation status (MFN), while Islamabad has yet to grant MFN status to India. It

should, however, be forthcoming, because of pressures from Pakistani society, especially

from the business sector. The President of the Management Association of Pakistan,

Tariq Ikram, reminded a 1996 seminar that since both India and Pakistan were signatories

of the World Trade Organization, the question was no longer if the two states should

trade with each other. Participating in the discussions, Tariq Sayeed Saigol, a leading

manufacturer and exporter of textiles, believed that there was nothing to fear from trade

with the Indian textile industry, provided his colleagues optimized cost of production and

ensured quality production.

In March 1977, the National Shipping Corporation of Pakistan urged Islamabad to allow

the country’s shipowners to conduct third country trade with India.48 In April 1997, India

and Pakistan agreed to expand official bilateral trade to more than 500 items.49 Pakistani

commentators acknowledge that their country could particularly benefit by importing

items like medicines from India where they are sold at less than 30 percent of the

Pakistani prices, thanks to stricter control on multinationals.50

India, however, has to alleviate Pakistani fears that an opening of Pakistan’s economy

will not invite the hegemony of the Indian bourgeoisie. For instance, subsidies granted by

the Indian government to the export sector reportedly put Pakistani products at a

disadvantageous position. One way of gaining Pakistani confidence would be to adopt “a

phased manner approach” in eliminating trade barriers.51 Tradable commodities could be

categorized into noncompeting, competing, and exempted products.52 While tariffs for the

first category could be eliminated in the first phase of trade normalization, goods on

which two countries compete should be brought within the preferential tariff system

carefully and gradually. For mutually agreed upon exempted products, tariff barriers need

not be immediately eliminated. This arrangement would provide a level playing field to

the Pakistani business community. This is particularly important since the South Asian

 

47 See interview by Kantikumar Podar, the Mumbai-based business leader who is also Vice-President of

SAARC Chambers of Commerce, The News, April 30, 1997.

48 The Nation, March 23, 1997.

49 The Nation, April 30, 1997.

50 Pakistan and Gulf Economist, June 15-21, 1996.

51 Mohammad Zubir Khan, “Trade with India: The Correct Decision,” The News International, May 6,

1997.

52 This was suggested by a Pakistani business delegation to India in December 1996. See Communalism

Combat, No.29, January 1997. Also see Economic Cooperation in the SAARC Region: Potentials,

Constraints and Politics (RIS, New Delhi, 1990); Shaping South Asia’s Future: Role of Cooperation

(Friedrich-Ebert Foundation Working Paper, Kathmandu, May 1994).
Movements of People, Ideas, Trade, and Technology:

24

Preferential Trading Arrangement (SAPTA) is scheduled to be transformed to a South

Asian Free Trade Area (SAFTA) in 2005.53

The new atmosphere in India-Pakistan trading relations is reflected in the signing of

Memorandums of Understanding (MOUs) between the Federation of Indian Chamber of

Commerce and Industries (FICCI) and the Federation of Pakistan Chamber of Commerce

and Industry (FPCCI) on December 23, 199654 and between the Federation of Indian

Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (FISME) and Federation of Pakistan Chambers of

Traders and Cottage Industries (FPCTC) in March 1997.55 While Indian businessmen

have identified 207 export and 34 import items in their trade with Pakistan, their

Pakistani counterparts have listed 153 export items and 152 import items for trade with

India. Possible Indian exports to Pakistan could include agricultural and textile

machinery, automobile parts, oil processing, telecommunications and engineering items,

industrial chemicals, pharmaceutical materials, coal, and iron ore. Pakistani exports to

India could consist of raw cotton, wool, blended fabrics, mineral substances, stainless

steel, pesticides and insecticides, fertilizers, sports and surgical goods, plastic materials,

and textiles.

5. Cooperative Technological Relationship between India and

Pakistan: A Step Forward

Commercial connections between India and Pakistan could be sustained through the

establishment of complementary technological relations. A SAARC Study Group on

Economic Cooperation prescribed three-dimensional regional cooperation:

(1) collaborative efforts for technological upgrading to maintain global competition;

(2) improvement of technical capabilities where “global technological horizons” are

rapidly changing; and (3) substitution of old technologies by more environmentally

friendly applications. 56

One way of using technology in building regional confidence and verifying agreements is

through cooperative monitoring. This concept relies on using sharable technology and

data to jointly monitor compliance with bilateral or regional security agreements.57

Cooperative monitoring applications have been employed internationally in many security

contexts, including the implementation of conventional and nuclear arms control

measures and for regional confidence building. They are designed to complement and not

replace other national means of monitoring. By building confidence between nations,

 

53 Indra Nath Mukherji, “Transition from SAPTA to SAFTA: Instruments and Modalities,” Emerging

South Asian Order, op.cit.

54 Economic Times, December 30, 1996; The News, December 24, 1996.

55 Dawn, March 22, 1997.

56 Report on the Tripartite Brainstorming Session on Tripartite Study for Expansion of Economic

Cooperation in SAARC Region, op.cit.

57 This concept has been developed by the Cooperative Monitoring Center at Sandia National Laboratories,

Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA.
Toward a Peaceful Coexistence of India and Pakistan

25

regional security can be enhanced while reducing the threat of conventional war and

proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

Cooperative monitoring measures also offer the potential for implementing nonmilitary

agreements in areas such as border monitoring, pollution assessment, natural resource

management, and monitoring of disasters such as earthquakes, storms, or oil spills. In the

India-Pakistan context, cooperative monitoring has relevance for many areas: to counter

undercover cross-border trade; to facilitate the removal of bottlenecks in ports of entry;

and in preventing or responding to environmental disasters like oil spills.

5.1 Techno-Industrial Cooperation: New Hopes

Significant progress is yet to be attained in India-Pakistan technological collaboration.

This has been partly due to traditional Pakistani rigidities. Pakistan Foreign Minister,

Gohar Ayub Khan, for example, states: “We want India to resolve Kashmir and Siachen

problems but it wants to discuss trade and other issues which are quite irrelevant at this

stage.”58 Islamabad also fears that India, with its superiority in capital and intermediate

technology, contributing 78 percent of the total manufacturing value in the region, would

dump its products in Pakistan.59 But there are some positive signs on the political

horizon. Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had agreed to resume talks with India

without preconditions, remarking “we are 47 years late, we cannot afford any further

delay.”60. The outgoing Indian Prime Minister I.K. Gujral had likewise reiterated: “We

don’t want to be prisoners of the past and (are) trying to get rid of the mind set.”61

In the economic sphere, a South Asian Regional Convention on Intra-Regional

Investment is likely to be agreed upon in the near future.62 An interim clearing and

payments arrangement between India and Pakistan could end in a regional customs union.

In this new political and economic climate, prospects for India-Pakistan technological

collaboration have brightened.

A technical partnership would be beneficial to Pakistan since about 60 percent of its

development budget relies upon foreign credit to import capital and intermediate goods.63

While the Indian Council of Scientific and Industrial Research could share with Pakistan

its approximately 2000 industrial technologies, the Pakistan Council of Scientific and

Industrial Research could transmit to India its improved techniques in food and

fermentation technology, ore processing, metallurgy, glass and ceramics, paints and

 

58 Pakistani Foreign Minister Gohar Ayub Khan’s comment cited in Times of India, March 28, 1997.

59 Rajive Kaul, “Industrial Cooperation in South Asia” in Emerging South Asian Order, op.cit.

60 The News, February 14, 1997.

61 The Tribune, December 21, 1996.

62 Sarkar Shah and Somen Mukerjee, “Visions, Goals and Strategies,” op.cit.; S.S. Colombage, “Payments

and Monetary Cooperation in South Asia: Developments and Perspectives” in Perspectives on South Asian

Cooperation (Coordinating Group For Studies On South Asian Perspectives, Islamabad, 1994).

63 Gowher Rizvi, op.cit., pp. 159-60.
Movements of People, Ideas, Trade, and Technology:

26

plastics, fine chemicals, polymers, industrial chemicals, and leather. Cooperation between

the Pakistan and Indian Agricultural Research Councils could lead to improvement in

pest control and seed breeding, making agriculture higher yielding and more cost

effective.

Bilateral cooperation for technological upgrading in textiles, leather goods, jute

manufactures, tea, rubber products, micro-electronics, biotechnology, and photovoltaics

would be mutually beneficial for meeting global competition. In the 1980s, large deposits

of rock phosphate were discovered at the Hazara region of Pakistan that could be

processed economically with Indian technology.64 In paper production, India and Pakistan

could collaborate to replace the wood-based technology with more environmentally

friendly biogas-based techniques.

Telecommunication networks across the border can promote the flow of ideas, and a

computer database–the SAARC Net–already promises closer interface between policy

makers, commercial groups, and academics.65 The space program of the two countries,

the INSAT and IRS for India and Badr-I and Badr-II for Pakistan, could also be

coordinated. U.S.-Russia space programs have been fruitful, and space collaboration is

planned between India and China.

5.2 Joint Industrial Ventures

Expert studies suggest that some joint India-Pakistan industrial ventures could leverage

low-cost labor advantages to provide economical substitutes for expensive western

technologies.66 Coordination between multinational units operating in India and Pakistan,

probably on the basis of division of labor, could hasten indigenous manufacturing

capability and economies of scale. Such an experiment can be readily attempted for the

existing Suzuki automobile and Yamaha motorcycle plants.67

Based on policy papers prepared by the two governments, as well as task forces

constituted by the SAARC Secretariat, there could be technological collaboration in areas

ranging from engineering goods to agricultural and food technology. A professional

survey identifies a potential for joint industrial ventures in agro-based industries; jute,

textile, and leather; metal, rubber, and plastic products; transport equipment; electrical

and machine tools; mineral-based industries; pharmaceuticals and chemicals;

telecommunications; scientific instruments; sports goods, and sericulture.68

 

64 Economic Cooperation In the SAARC Region: Potential, Constraints and Policies, op.cit., p. 185.

65 Report of the Tripartite Brainstorming Session, op.cit.

66 Gowher Rizvi, op.cit., p. 158.

67 Economic Cooperation In The SAARC Region: Potential, Constraints and Policies, op.cit., p. 161.

68 SAARC Study on Trade, Manufactures and Services (Kathmandu: 1991).
Toward a Peaceful Coexistence of India and Pakistan

27

A SAARC Study Group recommends regional industrial restructuring of the type that

fostered South-East Asian industrial integration.69 This would imply “relatively more

advanced economies of the region. . . (vacating) some stages of production in favor of the

others who are laggards in terms of technology and product diversification.”70 It entails

new locational patterns of industries and inter-country linkages of supplies and demands.

The viability of such a program would depend, above all, on Indo-Pakistan collaboration.

5.3 Environmental Technological Collaboration

India and Pakistan share a common ecosystem, rich in biodiversity and genetic resources.

The Indo-Pakistan Indus Water Treaty of 1960 has enabled the irrigation of about 24

million acres of land. This Indus spirit can be extended to harness energy and other

natural resources for development. One way to increase electricity generation in India and

Pakistan is joint utilization of regional hydropower resources and transmission of that

electricity through an interconnecting Indian and Pakistani power grid system. Part of the

electricity generated by the Indo-Bhutan project could be channeled into India’s northern

power grid for transfer to Pakistan. Similarly, electricity imported by Pakistan from

Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan might be connected to the Pakistan grid in the Northwest

Frontier Province for supply to the subcontinent. Common transmission and distribution

networks already operate in North America, Europe, Africa, and the Middle East, and the

method can logically work in South Asia. Since India has the world’s largest solar energy

program, it could transfer this technology for use in Pakistani provinces like Sindh whose

terrain and climate are similar to the Indian state of Rajasthan.

India and Pakistan could also meet their deficiency in natural gas by collectively tapping

the world’s two major natural gas deposits in the Persian Gulf and Central Asia,

geographically contiguous to them. For instance, a single gas pipeline (instead of

independent gas import options from Iran, Turkmenistan, and Qatar) through Pakistan to

India would be cost-effective for both countries.71

Bilateral collaboration is also feasible for use of renewable sources of energy and

monitoring air and water pollution.72 Emissions from automobiles, a major source of air

pollution in both countries, could be countered by developing appropriate technology to

substitute oil with alternative fuels. India and Pakistan could also undertake joint

surveillance on seismic, climatic, and other environmental changes to provide advance

warning against droughts, floods, and other natural calamities.

 

69 Report of the Tripartite Brainstorming Session.

70 Ibid.

71 The extended line would be particularly helpful for Bangladesh, which has a gas reserve for only 25

years.

72 Lokesh Misra and Charan D. Wadha, “South Asian Cooperation in the Energy Sector” in Arif A. Waqif

ed. Regional Cooperation In Industry and Energy: Prospects for South Asia (Sage, New Delhi, 1991); G.P.

Upawansa, “Regional Cooperation in Energy” in ibid., pp. 236-7.
Movements of People, Ideas, Trade, and Technology:

28

6. Toward a South Asian Peace

There are encouraging signs of a growing consciousness for bilateral cooperation at the

popular level, demonstrated, for example, by the scenes of solidarity during the

crossborder meetings of the Pakistan-India People’s Forum For Peace And Democracy.

The dialogue launched by Prime Ministers Gujral and Sharif in 1997 has provided

impetus for restructuring relations along more cooperative lines. Whichever party

assumes power in New Delhi following the parliamentary elections in February 1998, the

peace dialogue is unlikely to be undermined.

A sustained dialogue will lead to an incremental reduction of tensions between India and

Pakistan, replacing traditional perceptions of hostility and suspicion with mutual

understanding and trust. Official policies that encourage people-to-people contact and the

free flow of information would foster a favorable climate for the resolution of longstanding differences.

Policy makers in India and Pakistan, as well as influential sectors of the political and

economic elite, are also aware of the considerable potential of Indo-Pakistan economic

and technological cooperation in areas of “mutually beneficial commonalties”73 that have

emerged in the wake of economic liberalization. To fully exploit the opportunities

presented by this changed political and economic environment, governments in both

states must demonstrate their resolve to incrementally revise official policies that have

prevented the flow of peoples and ideas across their national borders and that have placed

impediments in the path of economic and technological collaboration. The normalization

of Indo-Pakistan relations will bring peace to a troubled region and a better life for

millions of Indians and Pakistanis.

7. About the Authors

Dr. Samina Ahmed is a specialist on South Asian security and a freelance journalist.

She has a master’s degree in International Relations and a Ph.D. in Political Science from

the Australian National University. Dr. Ahmed has considerable research experience and

has published extensively on South Asian security issues. Her publications include the

co-edited book, Pakistan and the Bomb: Public Opinion and Nuclear Options, as well as

several book chapters and articles in academic journals and the print media.

Dr. Suranjan Das is a University Professor, Department of History, University of

Calcutta, and Coordinator, Peace Studies Group, Department of History, University of

Calcutta. He received his D. Phil. from the University of Oxford in 1987 for his

dissertation on “Communal Riots in Bengal 1905-47.” Currently he works on aspects of

South Asian regional peace and security. He has a number of publications to his credit

and contributes regularly to academic journals and newspapers.

 

73 Sanjya Baru, “A Subaltern View of South Asian Economy,” Business Standard, April 11, 1997.
Toward a Peaceful Coexistence of India and Pakistan

29

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