ISLAMABAD: President Pakistan Businessmen and Intellectuals Forum (PBIF), President AKIA, Senior Vice Chairman of the Businessmen Panel of FPCCI and former provincial minister Mian Zahid Hussain has demanded that Pakistan should not bow to international pressure to allow trade between India and Afghanistan through its soil.
India and Afghanistan have failed to push Pakistan for a land route after which New Delhi has started apprising western diplomats and top officials of the benefits of smooth traffic movement across the countries in South Asia, he said.
Mian Zahid Hussain said that Pakistan has been preventing smoother and faster trade between India and Afghanistan over legitimate security concerns as it will threaten internal security, trigger terrorism and endanger mega projects including CPEC.
He said that Pakistan has not signed and should never sign SAARC Motor Vehicle and Railway agreements due to security concerns as trade can never be important than the national security. “We cannot push country to anarchy to please some countries,” he said, adding that signing such deals amounts to signing our own death warrants as linking two neighbours will have a huge cost.
Mian Zahid Hussain said that increase trade is an important tool to reduce poverty and political tensions in the region only when it does not endangers survival of a nation. He said that trade and better connectivity can never be more important than our national security and India and Afghanistan should try to realise target of ten billion dollars of trade in five years as it is not Pakistan’s responsibility.
