Bangladesh, India and Pakistan
I have read in your newspaper reports on trade between these three countries. Trade between India and Bangladesh should flourish. India and Bangladesh can have a good trade relationship. But trade with Pakistan is another matter. As a Pakistani, I believe Pakistan's goods and products won't be popular in Bangladesh or in India and Pakistan's trade with these two countries is still negligible. Most Pakistanis are allergic to having well developed trade relationship with Bangladesh. Trade with India will go nowhere until the issue of Kashmir is resolved.
The Saarc deal, well, this should be with like minded countries. We Pakistanis are not very fond of Saarc. As here in the United States, the American people are not very fond of Mexico. I may mention here that Mexico is a neighbour of the United States and trade with Mexico is not huge.
The feeling among the Pakistanis is that we don't like to get close to Bangladesh or India. So the spirit of Saarc is absent here.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel.