Backdoor Diplomacy With India Could Pay Off: The Mian Mansha

LAHORE: Leading businessman Mian Muhammad Mansha argues that off-the-record diplomacy and back routes between Pakistan and India are being used and that these efforts might yield positive outcomes.

Nishat Group chairman told a meeting of businesspeople at the Lahore Chambers of Commerce and Industry on Wednesday that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi might visit Pakistan in a month if relations between the two neighbours improve.

It was his opinion that the two countries should resolve their differences and begin trading with each other to ease poverty in the region.

“The country may suffer devastating repercussions if the economy doesn’t improve. Trade connections with India should be improved and Pakistan should adopt a regional strategy for economic growth,” as per Mian Mansha. He stressed that after two devastating wars, Europe finally found a solution based on regional cooperation and peace. The hostility between India and Pakistan is not ever-lasting.

Since India’s revocation of the statute granting special status or autonomy to occupied Kashmir in August of last year, Pakistan and India’s trade relations have been on hold. A Gulf state is said to have facilitated back-channel negotiations between the two economies of the area last summer. However, the administration said that it cancelled the negotiations because of Indian mistreatment of the people of Kashmir and its failure to withdraw its soldiers and restore Kashmir’s unique status.

Domestically, Mian Mansha emphasised the importance of “progressive, market-oriented policies.” Pakistan may achieve quick development through price controls on capital market operations, lower trade barriers, and reduced government involvement in the economy, particularly through privatisation and austerity.

Moreover, he said, privatisation has a positive effect on the economy as a whole. Privatisation in the telecom sector has made it possible for everyone to have a phone and make low-cost phone calls.

Moreover, he added only Pakistan supplies gas through pipes and wastes resources on such a large scale. “The system is a burden on the state and major changes are needed in the bureaucracy’s structure,” he added.

Mian Nauman Kabir, the LCCI president, congratulated Mian Mansha on his appointment as chairman of the advisory council of the British Asian Trust in Pakistan.

“We are all witness to your illustrious career, extraordinary achievements as an entrepreneur, and one of the most successful businessmen who left a lasting footprint across the country. Be it textiles, cement, banking, insurance, power generation, hospitality, agriculture, dairy or paper products, your group has achieved unmatched success,” he added.

The president of the LCCI said that the business community wants to know how Pakistan can emerge as a competitive economy in the region that not only creates job opportunities for its youth via industrialisation but also generates significant export revenue and foreign direct investment.