ISLAMABAD, Jan 18: Parliamentary delegates from India and Pakistan here on Wednesday agreed on playing their role in changing the mindsets of their peoples as well as pressuring their respective governments not to allow their bilateral normalisation dialogue become hostage to any intervening incidents.
The two-day inter-parliamentary dialogue, third in the series, focusing on finding ways and means to enhance bilateral trade and economic relations concluded here with the issuance of a joint statement carrying a 15-point plan for broadening of relationship between the two countries.
Former Indian foreign affairs minister Yashwat Singh Sinha, who co-chaired the proceedings along with Senator S.M. Zafar, while briefing mediapersons said: “Both governments need to play role in normalisation of relations but the major responsibility lies on peoples of both the countries.”
He admitted that being representatives of the people, the parliamentarians had a major role to play in changing mindsets of the peoples and also to pressure the governments not to allow any bottlenecks in continuing their bilateral talks.
Mr Sinha, however, evaded responding to a question whether the parliamentary delegations from the two countries had pondered over the need to resolve their long-standing issues, including Kashmir, and only pointed to the joint statement which said: “Improving trade and economic relationship will also assist in resolving a number of long-standing issues which have been mentioned in the composite dialogue process.”
Indian ambassador Shankar Aiyar was also part of the 15-member parliamentarians’ delegation which came from New Delhi to take part in the dialogue III.
Mani Shankar, member of Indian Rajia Sabha, stressed continuation of the bilateral dialogue, saying no incidents in future, like the attack on Indian parliament or Mumbai terror incident, should suspend them. He also saw a very bright economic future for both the countries if they come to terms on basic infrastructural changes, predicting the bilateral trade could reach $14 billion from the current $2 billion per annum.
Mr Zafar on the occasion said 35 parliamentarians from Pakistan took part in the deliberations.
The joint statement said: “The parliamentarians recognised the significant progress made in the furtherance of trade and economic relations during the discussions between the commerce ministers of India and Pakistan from September 26 to October 11, 2011, and thereafter in the 6th round of commercial and economic cooperation dialogue between the commerce secretaries in November 2011”.
There was a general agreement that strengthening of trade relations must be viewed in the wider context of trade as the engine of growth, its welfare-enhancing multiplier effects which go beyond trade to improve overall life quality and bring welfare benefits to both the countries.
They called for early completion of the transition from the current positive-list approach to a small negative list to be ratified by end February 2012 followed in the second stage by further phasing out of the negative list by end 2012 and the process of seeking preferential trade agreements within the framework of Safta on a priority basis.
The joint technical group for improving physical infrastructure for trade should also complete their exercise by end February 2012. The non-tariff barriers constituted deterrence in the realisation of the trade potential of both sides, hence the two governments should undertake appropriate measures for minimising sector-specific barriers as well as fostering dialogue between regulatory bodies of both sides.
The need to have an appropriate grievance-rederessal mechanism to facilitate clearance of trade consignments at land, sea and airports was also stressed and the participants called for trade-growth encouraging investments by both the countries to deepen their economic relations. Besides, reaching an early conclusion of the investment protection treaty in lines with many other countries was also necessary to enhance the confidence among business communities to undertake investment and realise the benefits of growing economic opportunities.
They called for fostering linkages between private sector organisations harnessing entrepreneurial initiatives and intra-industry trade, including joint ventures, to help enhance effectiveness of other initiatives that are currently underway.
Trade links cannot be strengthened or sustained without requisite financial and banking arrangements, they added.