Faculty / School

Faculty of Business Administration (FBA)

Was this content written or created while at IBA?

Yes

Document Type

Conference Paper

Publication Date

9-11-2014

Author Affiliation

Dr. Ishrat Husain is Dean and Director at Institute of Business Administration, Karachi.

Conference Name

Lecture delivered at Jamia Millia Islami

Conference Location

New Delhi

Conference Dates

September 11, 2014

First Page

1

Last Page

7

Keywords

Economy, South Asia, India, Pakistan

Abstract / Description

The topic which I wish to discuss this afternoon is a sad commentary on the past and present relations between the two neighboring countries but is based on a promising hope for the future. As a student of comparative Development Economics I am appalled at the low level of trade that takes place within the South Asia region. On the other hand, East Asia has developed mechanisms that have promoted economic, trade and investment ties, increased cultural exchanges and deepened non-traditional security cooperation such as disaster prevention and mitigation. The main obstacle in the way of a vibrant South Asia Economic Union , in my view, is the tensions that have persisted between India and Pakistan for a very long time. My review of the history of these relations has led me to believe that Indian Pakistan Economic relations have remained subservient to the other contentious issues that fall within the political and security domains. The natural ingredients of continuity, geography, infrastructure links, cultural similarities, linguistic overlap and common history that could have bound other neighboring countries more strongly have not been able to offset the vituperative discourse and deep rooted trust deficit between the two countries that has been allowed to flourish during the last six decades. This period has been marked by some positive break throughs at various points of time e.g. the Indus water Treaty, the Tashkent Declaration, the Simla Agreement, Lahore Declaration and the Musharraf-Manmohan Singh Formula (that was not consummated). So if there are visionary leaders in both the countries we are able to untie the knots. But the bitter memories of the Partition, the 1965 war, the 1971 breakup of the two wings of Pakistan, the 1998 Nuclear tests, the Kargil crisis, the 2002 Mobilisation of Troops the Mumbai incident have done more to sour these relations.

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