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| A detail of Pakistan's colourful truck art.
© Shafiq Morton
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PAKISTAN is a south-east Asian country
of 200 million people. It faces the Arab Sea and is sandwiched
between India to the west, the ice-capped Hindu Kush to the north and
Afghanistan and Iran to the east.
Flowing over 3,000 kilometres through
the centre of the country is the Indus River, Pakistan’s
socio-economic lifeline. It is the cradle of an ancient valley
civilisation whose writing still has to be deciphered, but whose
cultural legacy stretches back to at least 5,000 years.
When I’d last visited Pakistan in
2010, the Indus had overflowed its banks in one of its biggest floods
in living memory, the water moving 50 kilometres inland at a height
of over one metre.
This time I was a guest of the Trade
Development Association of Pakistan (the TDAP), who were hosting
their 8th annual trade expo in Karachi, the country’s
bustling economic hub and coastal city of 16 million.
Since its 1947 partition from India,
Pakistan has experienced difficult times. Regional discord, religious
extremism, military coups and natural disasters such as floods and
earth quakes, have tested the vision of its founding father, Muhammad
‘Ali Jinnah, at every turn.
Embroiled in a nuclear arms race with
India during the 1990’s, the country has fought four wars against
its neighbours over the past 60 years, three on the issue of Kashmiri
partition and one about Bangladesh in 1971.
During the Russian invasion of
Afghanistan from 1979 to 1989, Pakistan became the launching pad for
Saudi-US trained foreign mujahideen.
Of all the conflicts in the region,
Afghanistan has been the most damaging, and after the cessation of
the Russian-Afghan war, it saw mujahideen such as Usama bin Laden
turning on their sponsors, and Pakistan’s rugged eastern
territories being plagued with a Taliban insurgency.
As fate would have it, a 7.7 earthquake
on the Richter scale hit the remote eastern Baluchistan province as
we landed in Karachi.
But in spite of its latest tribulation,
I discovered that the recently elected Pakistan government –
reeling from its most recent natural disaster – was serious about
trade and was talking a new language, openly acknowledging its
socio-economic problems and back-footing the Taliban mullahs with an
offer of peace.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, an old
political warhorse and former businessman, had spoken during his
successful election campaign in May about making Pakistan a
“respectable country”, and reviving a lagging economy that was
27th largest in the world in terms of its purchasing
power.
This much was evident at the opening
function of the TDAP’s Expo Pakistan 2013, which was attended by
over 1,000 delegates from 28 countries. The local Minister of State
for Commerce, Khurram Dastagir Khan, said that whilst terror had
undeniably taken its toll, Pakistan was willing to rise to the
challenge.
Describing Pakistan as a “land of
opportunity”, Khan said that it was one of the world’s biggest
agricultural producers and was rich in gold, coal, timber, copper,
marble and granite. The country’s high-quality textile sector had
contributed to over 50% of its 25 billion dollars of exported goods
in 2012.
Calling for bi-lateral trade, he said
that “transparency, reliability, consistency and clarity” were
the watchwords of the new government. It wanted to realise
Pakistan’s immense potential in human resources, entrepreneurial
skills and natural resources. Pakistan was open for business.
President Mamnoun
Hussein said that Pakistan was committed to being a “preferred
business destination”. It offered a complete basket of products. He
cited liberal terms for joint ventures, adding that Pakistan had
learnt from the failures of other developing countries in terms of
restricting capital flows.
Chatting to the exhibitors I discovered
that there was great determination to sell Pakistan. Omar, a young
textile salesman from Faisalabad, told me that blowback from the “war
on terror” had affected business badly.
“It destroyed everything…our lives,
our economy.”
At the exhibition I noticed many women
operating the exhibition stalls, a contrast to Malala Yousafzai being
hounded by the obscurantist Taliban in Swat. Secretary of the TDAP,
Ms Rabia Javeri Agha, told me that Pakistani women played a vital
role in the economy.
Later on I was to meet Sultana Siddiqi,
director and founder of Pakistan’s biggest commercial TV channel,
Hum TV, which was listed on the stock exchange. The doyenne of
Pakistan TV and a passionate ambassador for women’s rights, she has
won numerous awards for her work.
Members of the South African delegation
were impressed. Jason Drew, honorary Pakistan Consul-General in Cape
Town, described Pakistan as a country of “warm, welcoming people”
with “extensive opportunities for bi-lateral trade”.
Local businessman, Dr Anwah Nagia, said
that the Expo showed all the positive elements for a viable
international business footprint in Pakistan. There were great
opportunities for South African business.
“These people were on top of their
game, and hungry for trade with a ‘nothing is impossible attitude’.
Their fresh produce meets EU standards. They also have a big mining
sector, 300 years of coal reserves and an untapped tourist market.”
Pakistan’s High Commissioner, Zaighum
‘Uddin Azam, told me that South African exports in 2012 had been R
2.4 billion, imports R 2.1 billion. “We look forward to increasing
those figures,” he said.
Mr Yusuf Emeran, former president of
the Cape Chamber of Commerce, said he had been pleasantly surprised –
the current stereotypes of Pakistan didn’t apply. He urged that to
establish benchmarks, the various Chambers of Commerce should
establish links with SA.
On my last day I visited the mausoleum
of Muhammad ‘Ali Jinnah, the patriarch of Pakistan. On a plaque I
read his famous 1948 BBC broadcast, his crisp words of 65 years ago
echoing the heartfelt sentiments of so many people that I’d spoken
to:
“Our object should be peace within
and peace without. We want to live peacefully and maintain cordial
relations with our neighbours and with the world at large…I would
like Pakistan to become a synonym and hallmark for standards and
quality in the market-place of the world”.
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