By: Kayhan Int’l Staff Writer

 

When the Subcontinent was partitioned in 1947 and Pakistan was born, Iran was among the first nations to recognize the new country and establish diplomatic ties with a land with which relations predate history, flourishing since the Bronze Age civilizations of Jiroft (Kerman) and Shahr-e Sokhteh (Sistan) on one hand, and Mohenjodaro (Sindh) and Harappa (Punjab) on the other – over 5,000 years ago.

Today, the 905 km long Iran-Pakistan border could well be called the frontier of fraternity because no confrontation has ever occurred between the two Muslim neighbours, except for the sporadic acts of terrorism against the Islamic Republic over the past three decades by fringe groups on the payroll of the US, the illegal Zionist entity, and Saudi Arabia. 

The Baluch people whose land overlaps the Iran-Pakistan frontier – the result of the colonial legacy of exploiter Britain – have never condoned the seditious activities of these foreign-planted terrorist groups on the Pakistani soil against their respective governments, and in fact have contributed greatly to the border trade between the two countries.

Yet, despite the many commonalties shared by Iran and Pakistan in the fields of history, civilization, culture, religion, and language (Urdu has heavily borrowed from Persian), the volume of commercial exchanges between the two neighbours, who along with Turkey are the founding members what used to be the Regional Cooperation for Development (RCD) of the 1960s and 1970s and the present Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) – which has since increased to ten members – is unfortunately far from satisfactory.

This is mostly due to the negative influence of the US upon the governments that have marched in and out of Islamabad, especially since the triumph of the Islamic Revolution in 1979.

Washington is terrified of the solidarity between the Iranian and Pakistani people and still remembers with horror how the student rally in Islamabad on 21st November 1979 burned down the US embassy for its nefarious activities a mere 17 days after revolutionary students following the path of Imam Khomeini (RA) captured the American den of espionage (so-called embassy) in Tehran on November 4.

Promotion of trade and cultural ties between Iran and Pakistan – which for centuries was one of the centres of Persian language and poetry in the Subcontinent – would naturally strengthen political ties and awaken the Pakistani Muslims towards the dangers of Uncle Sam’s hegemony, which has continued to prevent Islamabad from ever forming a strong and stable central government.

This is the reason the US had brought in Saudi Arabia to invest billions of dollars into Pakistan, not for strengthening the economy or industry, but to make the successive administrations in Islamabad ever dependent upon Riyadh and the oil-rich Persian Gulf regimes as well as for spread of the seditious Wahhabi cult in order to divide the Muslim people and pit them against each other in violent clashes with unnecessary spilling of innocent blood.

At the same time, this hegemonic leverage effectively pressures Pakistan from promoting commercial relations with Iran for fear of violating the US sanctions, as is evident by the refusal of the governments that rise and fall in Islamabad from easy access to abundant supplies of natural gas available across the western side of their border for rapid and cost-effective development of the national economy, even though Iran has completed the pipeline right up to the borders of its eastern neighbour.

Hopefully this will change, and whether or not there is the political will in Islamabad to resist and reject American pressures, it is time for Pakistan to choose the path of economic independence by grasping Iran’s extended hand for increase of commercial exchanges from the meagre 392 million US dollars per year at present, to the 5 billion dollar annual target set this week at the 21st Iran-Pakistan Joint Economic Commission held after a five-year gap.

It is nice for the ministers of the two countries to warmly greet each other in Islamabad, talk sweet words as usual, ink memorandums of understanding in the fields of trade, tourism, maritime, and media, and raise the possibility of signing a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) in the next six months as well as finalizing the Iran-Pakistan preferential trade arrangement.

What, however, is important for Tehran and Islamabad is to practically implement these accords by reducing trade barriers and tariffs, and engaging with each other in various fields including hydrocarbons (gas and oil), without fears of Washington, which has never been a friend of the people of Pakistan.