Hundreds of people huddled around television sets in Karachi's Kharadar district, once inhabited by rich Hindu families, as they saw the entry of Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee into Pakistani territory at Wagha.Most of those huddled around the television were Memons, small-time traders and businessmen who migrated from Gujrat into Karachi: they still speak Memoni and Gujrati, and chattered excitedly as the bus entered Pakistan. For them, any normalisation in relations between India and Pa kistan means more business opportunities: and they are waiting anxiously for the day when they can start operations.At present, trade is conducted by Memons through the `Khaep' system: individuals bring as much as possible and sell at high prices in a market increasingly aware of Indian products.Yakub Bhai, who sells shares outside the Bombay Bazar in Kharadar, however, holds a different view. ``What difference does it (bus diplomacy) make,'' he asks, pointing to the closed Indian consulate that stands onKarachi's Fatima Jinnah Road: at one time, this office used to issue over 600 visas a day. Most people avoid going to Islamabad for visas because of the costs involved and the endless waiting. It is a fallacy, say analysts, that the majority of persons who go to India from Pakistan are going to see relatives. ``That's the most convinient way to get a visa,'' says one travel agent, adding ``and that is why everybody says he is going to see relations''. Increasingly, people go for tourism and business.The Karachi-based MQM party, in its statement, demanded that a ferry service be started between Karachi and Mumbai for the benefit of the residents of the city. MQM senator Aftab Shaikh questioned the logic of some government officials who had stated that if such a service was started, the incidence of AIDS would rise through this. ``Does the AIDS virus die when it is in a bus,'' asked Shaikh.The MQM has also demanded that a second border point, at Khokhrapar-Munbao, be opened so that persons visiting fromKarachi would not have to go all the way to Lahore.This demand is resisted by Sindh's nationalist parties, which say that such a move would open the floodgates of illegal immigration into Sindh.``We will resist this tooth and nail as we don't want to become a minority in our own province,'' said nationalist leader Qadir Baksh.
