Pre-Mid Test 2

Topic:

Pakistan and Regionalism

Submitted to: Ma’am Dur e shehwar Bano

Submitted by:

Roshaane Gul

Semester 3

Course title: Regionalism & Regional blocs

Submission’s date: October 3, 2020

Pakistan emerged on the world map after the long strenuous struggle of the Muslims of Sub-
continent under the leadership of Quaid-e-Azam and sacrificed millions of Muslims. Kashmir
Issue is the legacy of unjust division between India and Pakistan. India accepted this division
temporarily and wanted to see United India. After independence, India forced Muslims for
migration and slaughtered many of them. So Pakistan got 1.7 million more refugees which were
difficult for Pakistan to tackle due to lack of assets and poor economic position. Three wars have
been fought between India and Pakistan due to wounds of partition and Kashmir issue. But now
they realized to normalize their relations and resolve Kashmir issue through dialogues. So
Pakistan has strained relationship with India from 1947 till now.

Pakistan is developing country and classified as moderate progressive Islamic country. Despite
of strategic disparity with India in size, economy and military Pakistan achieved the same
nuclear status as India with its nuclear weapon tests of 1998. Pakistan is significant due to its
strategic location. Pakistan has successfully established its Islamic identity and presented a
relatively moderate and Islamic face of Islam before world and also maintained good relations
with west. Pakistan has two major concerns regarding its foreign policy. First is security against
its neighbors- Afghanistan and India and second is economy. Security issues have made shifts in
Pakistan foreign policy. Pakistan joined many US security arrangements with the hope of getting
aid and weapons, expanded relations with China and improved ties with Russia and also adopted
a non-alignment policy. There was many ups and down with its relation with US. Pakistan has
become a major non-NATO ally of the United States.

Pakistan did not show any interest in regionalism in her initial years of establishment because of
her strained relationship with India and both countries wanted to remove dependence over each
other. In 1985, efforts were made to develop regionalism with the initiation of SAARC. Ten
years later, member states were agreed to make any regional economic integration but it didn’t
make huge progress as compare to other trade blocs such as EU. From the historical experiences
of Pakistan, it may seems that Pakistan prefer multilateralism to regionalism. As Pakistan’s
mostly trade go to west and major trading partner is USA.

In 1977 when the idea of SAARC was given by Bangladesh, it was very contradictory for states
within the region. As in 1970, India emerged as a dominant state as it interfered in the crisis of
Bangladesh and this was resulted in the creation of East Pakistan and signed the Treaty of Peace,
Friendship and Cooperation with the Soviet Union. Pakistan was traumatized on this situation
and wanted to resist its hegemony. So the opposition between two main powers resisted any
cooperative regionalism. For Pakistan to become the member of such regional group where India
had dominant position was equal to make compromise on the stance of Kashmir. So Pakistan had
cautious attitude towards the emergence of SAARC. But when US gave aid to Pakistan, the
attitude of Pakistan was different towards SAARC. But the hopes of Pakistan were frustrated
when India insisted not to discuss bilateral issues here. But SAARC was in interest of Pakistan’s
socio-economic factors so Pakistan had become its member. Moreover, Pakistan have joined
many large regional groups including-The Indian Ocean Rim, The ASEAN Regional Forum, The
Asia–Pacific Economic Cooperation grouping, The Shanghai Cooperation Organization, The
Economic Cooperation Organization and many others in order to protect her social, political,
economic and security interests as there was a constant security issue from India. But Pakistan
was unable to resolve Kashmir issue on any one of these forums. But still Pakistan’s approach
may be classified as multilateralist in the region; it is negotiating direct free trade arrangements
with China and with a host of countries in many other continents.

A clear change in Pakistan’s attitude towards regionalism emerged at the 12th SAARC summit,
held in Islamabad in January 2004, where the decision was taken to launch SAFTA on 1 January
2006 and a committee of experts was set up to prepare for the launch of the free trade area.
According to economic experts such as Shahid Javed Burki, Pakistan could be the patron that
SAFTA desperately needs. Burki argues that active involvement in SAFTA could also serve
Pakistan’s political interests, since India’s concern to gain transit rights through Pakistan for
trade with Afghanistan and Central Asia could be traded off against Indian concessions on
Kashmir. On the sidelines of the January 2004 SAARC summit, the president of Pakistan and the
prime minister of India issued a joint statement welcoming the normalization of relations
between the two countries and agreeing to start a composite dialogue the next month. Both
countries, and the region as a whole, face acute challenges of poverty, terrorism, energy
shortage, scarcity of water, environmental degradation, deforestation, and poor infrastructure and
disaster relief.

Regionalism seems to be in interest of Pakistan. Pakistan will soon grant India MFN status.
Mutual MFN status would also commit both countries not to use nontariff trade barriers against
each other. Afghanistan’s entry into SAARC is another positive step that should help to place the
growing Pakistan. Pakistan invited China to invest in large refineries, storage facilities and
pipelines to help develop Gwadar as an ‘energy and trans-shipment port’ to ensure secure and
reliable supplies to these regions. Pakistan also offered the shortest route for import of fuel for
China from the Persian Gulf region and Central Asia.

This attitude shows the huge change in attitude of Pakistan towards regional trade. Pakistan is
offering trade corridors to all regions to maintain peace and to avoid from war. Pakistan has paid
huge economic cost of its disputes. If peace would be maintained between both countries -India
and Pakistan then their economy would two or three times of its present size. As now, we should
learn lessons from history and if the people of South Asia are to realize their potential for
development, a sustained and rapid peace process between India and Pakistan is urgent.