I WAS unpleasantly surprised to read Mian Mansha’s statement made during his visit to Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industries (Feb 2) where he claimed that “backchannels are working between Pakistan and India that will hopefully yield good result”.

He further said that if things improved between the two neighbours, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi could visit Pakistan “within a month”. He advised the two countries to resolve their disputes and start trade to fight poverty in the region. The first question which crops up in one’s mind is that since when a businessman has started giving statement on foreign policy, especially with regard to India, our arch-enemy.

This has been traditionally the purview of Foreign Office. The funniest part of the statement was his claim that if things improved, the Indian prime minister could visit Pakistan in a month.

It seems he sees everything from the prism of a businessman and that is why he is bent on propagating that if Pakistan wants to prosper, it must do business with India.

The reality is Pakistanis are not at all interested in importing Indian tomato, onion, garlic and potato or any worthless item which India wants to dump.

Conversely, our relations with China are based on all-weather friendship and amity. The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) has ushered us in a new era of economic activity and prosperity in Pakistan, then why the businessman in question is craving for trade with India?

He just forgot to mention that the prime minister has made it clear that trade with India could only be resumed if India overturns its decision of Aug 5, 2019, which abolished the special status of Kashmir by the annulment of Article 370 of the Indian Constitution.

One must remember the atrocities India has been perpetuating in occupied Kashmir since 1947, and dangerously more so since 1989. We must know how cunningly and stealthily India occupied Siachen in 1984, and its involvement in Balochistan and Afghanistan to destabilise Pakistan is not a secret any more.

But here we have a businessman who wants to resume trade and commerce with India. Should we go for trade and commerce with the enemy, instead of national pride, honour, sovereignty and integrity of the country?

One must not venture into uncharted territory or dabble into politics, especially foreign affairs, if it is not one’s domain. Let any decision pertaining to foreign policy remain the exclusive domain of our Foreign Office which truly understands the ramifications of dealing with India.

Safir Siddiqui
Karachi

Published in Dawn, February 27th, 2022