Battling the bogey

NEAR the massive crowd that had gathered to listen to Indian Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh, a local tapped my shoulder. 8216;8216;...

NEAR the massive crowd that had gathered to listen to Indian Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh, a local tapped my shoulder. 8216;8216;Sardarji, ikhathe hona ki nahin Mr Singh, do you wish to be united or not?8217;8217; he asked. Taken aback, I reply with a diplomatic, 8216;8216;Depends on you8217;8217;.

But he is undeterred. 8216;8216;Border kholne ki nahi Will you open the borders or not?8217;8217; he asks. Slightly more confidently, I reply that we are always ready, but doesn8217;t it cause the two-nation theory go for a toss? He laughs heartily, then replies, 8216;8216;The entire global roadmap has already been laid.8217;8217;

The nameless fruit-seller notwithstanding, cautious optimism seemed to be the general mood in Pakistan a month ago. Even at Nankana Sahib, where the crowd response indicated that Amarinder should perhaps contest elections in Pakistani Punjab rather than across the border, people questioned the rationale of the Nankana Sahib-Wagah road.

8216;8216;Who8217;ll pay for it?8217;8217; our driver Zulfiqar Butt asked repeatedly. 8216;8216;Will the Sikhs pay for the road, or will your government?8217;8217;

At the Lahore Chambers of Commerce, Amarinder proposed Wagah as a free trade zone. 8216;8216;Our goods travel from Amritsar to Mumbai, from where they are transported to the Gulf,8217;8217; he said. 8216;8216;Why can8217;t we use the Karachi port? Or even Lahore as a dry port? Then the Export Processing Zone at Amritsar can use Lahore as a base.8217;8217;

Even as land prices rose in Amritsar8212;45 minutes away from Lahore8212;in anticipation of softer borders, Amarinder8217;s remarks created quite a flutter at the Lahore Chambers, where 8216;Indian goods8217; raise a bogey similar to 8216;Chinese goods8217; in India. The balance of trade is the most-bandied term, and businessman have figures on their fingertips. 8216;8216;In the last year, Pakistan8217;s trade to India was 94 million and its imports 382 million,8217;8217; said Jameel Mahmood, a Lahore-based industrialist.

8216;8216;This trade could go upto a billion dollars in one year, and five billion in five years,8217;8217; said CII North president Rakesh Bharti Mittal, pinning hopes on accessing the expressway to reach Karachi port.

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Already, there are industrialists keen on tapping markets in Pakistani Punjab8212;and beyond. Gujarat Ambuja8217;s Suresh Neotia8217;s recent view that a joint committee be set up to explore opportunities8212;his own eyes being firmly set on the construction activities in Afghanistan8212;found several takers.

8216;8216;I buy cotton from Egypt, I could as well source it from Pakistan,8217;8217; said Rajinder Gupta, owner of towel-makers Trident Industries.

But there are bottlenecks that can8217;t be wished away just yet. 8216;8216;Why does Delhi interfere with Punjab?8217;8217; asked Misbah ur Rehman, vice-president of the SAARC business forum. 8216;8216;For years, I8217;ve been asking why there are more legal formalities at Wagah than at Delhi, and why every visitor to Punjab has to go to Delhi as well.8217;8217;

The writer, whose parents were born in Pakistan, was in the land of his ancestors recently