If good governance takes hold in Kashmir, the possibilities are endless. Bilal Hussain examines the future where the LoC is transformed into a Line of Commerce that brings strength and stability to the State.
(Mr. Bilal Hussain, 28, was born and raised in Srinagar. He went to the CASET Experimental High School, and the S.P. College, Srinagar. He has a Master’s degree in Finance and Control (MFC) from the Kashmir University. He worked as a financial writer and analyst for a telecom start-up company before joining Greater Kashmir staff as a writer/sub-editor in 2007. His personal interests are reading, writing, and internet surfing.)
Economic Unification will fetch Rs 12000 Crores
Separatists demand JK’s inclusion in SAARC, duty-free access to Indo-Pak markets
Srinagar, March 15: The debate on economic unification of the divided parts of Jammu and Kashmir is gaining momentum with the separatists seeking inclusion of the ‘united J&K’ in the seven-member South Asian economic bloc, SAARC. There are also voices favoring the conversion of LoC into a ‘line of commerce’ through an open market formula in which two parts of Kashmir will have a duty-free access to both Indian as well as Pakistani markets.
Experts here believe the perpetual blockade of the traditional routes across the Line of Control (LoC), which divides J&K between India and Pakistan, has an estimated annual trade potential of whopping Rs 12000 Crore.
Islamic Students League leader Shakeel Bakhshi believes that this huge loss could be made good if the ‘J&K Union’ was included in SAARC. “The economic union would bring fruits only if J&K would get the SAARC membership of South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC). By this we would be able to get patents for our indigenous products,” Bakhshi told Rising Kashmir.The economic unification, he added, is the extension of South Asian Free Trade Area (SAFTA) leading towards a customs union, common market and economic union.
Kashmir University’s noted Dean of Social sciences, Professor Nisar Ali, said the economic union of the divided parts of Jammu and Kashmir humanitarian, social and economic dimensions.”The line of control besides being a physical blockade has proved to be the economic barrier between two parts of J&K,” added Professor Ali who has also carried out a research regarding the economic prospects of throwing the LoC open for trade and communications. “Economic unification would mean duty free movement of goods, labor and services across LoC. A variety of products including handicrafts could be traded across LoC,” he said adding that the blockade of trade routes has not allowed the fullest exploitation of economic resources on either side of the dividing line.
Peoples Conference Chairman Sajjad Lone who had drawn flak from BJP for his ‘Muslim Kashmir’ demand, which he aired past year, told Rising Kashmir that carving out a single economic union out of two separate sub-entities, which have distinct political and geographical status, was possible. According to him a single economic entity would mean free flow of capital, trade, services and labor. Economic operations across the LoC and the removal of barriers to movement are perhaps the most profound visible indicators of change psychological unification.
Citing his economic model that he has included in his Achievable Nationhood Sajjad said, “Goods of J&K economic union would have duty-free access into India and Pakistan. This means that the J & K economic union would be able to service both the Indian and the Pakistani markets. Apart from that compared to the existing situation two parts of J&K would be able to service each other’s markets. The synergistic size of the market is 1+1=4. The base union of two parts of J&K would be able to service four markets India, Pakistan, J&K (India) and J&K (Pakistan).”
International Business expert, department of commerce Kashmir University, Mohammad Shafi said, “The J&K would become economic hub for both countries. This will usher in an era of economic progress.”According to him the trade across LoC would mean exchange of goods and services. “Forwarding agents, exporters, transporters, growers in short every body would get financially benefited,” he added. Trade can take place between two parties when comparative advantage of goods and services are there then only we can exchange them. “We have comparative advantage in handicrafts likewise they would have advantage in some other sectors which we can trade,” he said adding that the proximity of market was an added advantage that should be utilized.
But Sajjad Lone feels that such trade cooperation had been a norm between contiguous markets but was abandoned post World War II. “General Agreement on Trade and Tariff (GATT) was seen as an instrument of promoting world peace. This helped to bring countries like Germany back to the world economic system,” he pointed out.
Sajjad quoted the example of the European Union where, he believes, centuries old political rivalries could not deter the nations to exploit the benefits of economics. “This,”, he says, ” facilitated the moves that brought these states together in pursuit of economic objectives with spill over effects spreading to other sectors at a very fast pace.”