Ties with Islamabad
Sharif-Hasina meet in the sequel to the Three-Nation Business Summit has certainly helped Bangla-Pak relations to be buoyed up from the somewhat routine pattern these had gone into. This freshening up of the bilateral mood has seemingly been made possible partly by the liberalised atmosphere fostered in the wake of the tri-nation summit and partly because of a perception shared by Hasina and Nawaz Sharif that they must let their two countries' relationship come of age.
No highest-level contact between Pakistan and Bangladesh has ever passed off without a reference drawn to the asset-sharing and Behari repatriation issues dating back to our country's birth. For a full flowering of the bilateral relationship these questions will have to be resolved in an amicable manner at the earliest. The ball has remained in Islamabad's court. Who else than Nawaz Sharif can play it adroitly?
Geographical distance does not admit any direct inter-penetration of the economies of Bangladesh and Pakistan. It is by means of policy tools that they must be networking for a spurt in trade and investment activism. The trade balance is favourable to Pakistan and there is a plethora of goods that she can import from Bangladesh to help bridge the gap provided, of course, she lowers her tariff walls. Both India and Pakistan are yet to liberalise their tariffs to the extent Bangladesh, a smaller country, has already done. Pakistan Finance Minister Sartaz Aziz has promised at a colloquium of the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) on Friday that Islamabad is ready to extend preferential treatment to Bangladesh's goods. He would be only going an extra mile for Bangladesh should Pakistan start according that preferential treatment before the free trade area is fully established.
The business communities of the two countries need to interact through exchange of trade and investment delegations under the auspices of their respective chamber bodies, let alone those organised by their governments. This is now mostly happening at the individual level rather than group-wise and programmatically. We are waiting for the Joint Economic Commission to give a definite direction to bilateral cooperation not only in matters of trade but also joint venture projects.
The agreement on promotion of cultural programmes is another indication of a positive outlook shared between Dhaka and Islamabad in their relationship.
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