Although, India called off its flag retreating ceremony at Wagah border crossing the day it claimed to have carried out a “surgical strike” on the Pakistani side of Kashmir, the land route continues to allow mutually beneficial trade and bus service.
Around 60 trucks from India cross the land border into Pakistan carrying spices and vegetables, mainly tomatoes, while over 100 trucks from Pakistan enter India carrying dry dates, gypsum, cement and salt.
The import of Pakistani dates and cement helps India meet its growing needs.
On the Pakistani side, mini-trucks carrying tomatoes from Wagah India-Pakistan Joint Check Post arrive in Lahore’s vegetable market every day. These tomatoes are helping keep the prices of tomatoes in Lahore and other urban centres of Pakistan at low as Rs 60 per kilogram which otherwise could touch Rs 100. ”
In the past whenever there was tension on the border, India or Pakistan used to stop the bilateral trade. But this time, trade is going despite escalations on the Line of Control,” says Haji Muhammad Bilal, an importer of vegetables.
Pakistan used to import ginger , garlic and capsicum from India in addition to tomato, but now Chinese producers of ginger and garlic have ousted Indians from Pakistani market.
Out of the $2.6 bn trade between India and Pakistan, Indian exports are worth nearly $2.2 bn but only a small percentage of trade takes place through the Attari-Wagah land route. The rest of the trade takes place through the sea route via Dubai.
The bus service between India and Pakistan also continues unaffected by diplomatic and military tensions between the nuclear armed South Asian neighbors.
In March 1999, the then Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee traveled to Lahore in the inaugural bus and signed Lahore Declaration with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on fostering cooperative neighborly relations. But between then and now, the two countries have seen several ups and downs including Kargil conflict, 2002 standoff and last year’s deadly skirmishes in Kashmir.
Now in a changed geostrategic situation, the two countries are once again engaged in a war of words, and fire across the Line of Control after Indian forces killed, maimed and blinded Kashmiri protesters, and an attack on an Indian military base in Uri.
The trade and travel through Wagah crossing – which is famous for flag ceremonies- holds promise for mutual dependence and may remind the countries of the benefits of peace.
