WAGAH CROSSING, February 13
The sky had opened up the night before India’s largest-ever business delegation led by Union Commerce Minister Anand Sharma had to cross the Attari border. Delegates squelched through the mud to reach the ramshackle Indian customs and immigration.
In the evening at the end of the flag-lowering ceremony, the border is the location for raucous crowds, surging ahead to gawk at the ‘other’ through the closed iron gates. So, it was a rather unsettling experience to be walking across the same route where skyscraper-tall Indian border guards goose-step to the deafening shouts of jingoistic crowds, and in a second, smartly step over the zero line into Pakistani territory.
It must have rained here too, but the signs were not there — no muddy puddles, just a damp red carpet, which led to a swanky customs station, manned by smartly-uniformed women immigration officers.
Instead of the scheduled plan for the two commerce ministers to meet at the border around 8 am, it was not until noon that they shook hands and then hugged, thrice. Media jostled to run after the ministers to get the right position for the press conference at the border.
Indian and Pakistani media greeted each other, with the latter being more interested in the proceedings of the Supreme Court in Islamabad that had indicted Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani over contempt of court charges.
LAHORE, February 13
The Indian delegation almost brought Lahore to a stop. The convoy was driven into the city, accompanied by police jeeps with machine guns — as Lahore motorists were stopped by traffic policemen, causing long jams lasting a kilometre.
The Pearl Continental’s cavernous lobby seemed as crowded as the Trade Fair in Delhi at peak time, as 150 Indian nationals tried to check-in. Pakistan’s u-fone, which had set up stalls to sell local sim-cards, did brisk trade, as delegates first bought a local number in exchange for passport and visa. Indian and Pakistani sim cards do not work each other’s country – a visible demonstration of mutual disconnect.
Anand Sharma and host Makhdoom Amin Fahim together inspected the Integrated Check posts, surveyed the India Show at the Lahore Expo centre and watched Kathak performances, twice. Incidentally, the India expo had seen a case of a diamond necklace being stolen from an Indian jeweller’s stall. It was recovered within two days.
A massive tent had been erected on the manicured lawns of the palatial Governor’s house for a dinner in the honour of the visiting Indian minister. The evening entertainment was a scintillating performance of contemporary choreography in Kathak by India’s Kumdini Lakhia, which concluded with a rousing concert by Rahat Fateh Ali Khan – that ended past 2 am.
KARACHI, February 14
The Indian business delegation spent hardly 24 hours in Pakistan’s business capital. After arriving at the Karachi Sheraton, Anand Sharma skipped a luncheon meeting hosted by the local business chamber and instead addressed it in the evening. The minister, as well as several of the high-flying CEOs, had got their own planes to fly in and out of the multiple cities in Pakistan.
For the media, the tone of the delegation changed to a rather disappointing one, as news filtered in that the Pakistani federal cabinet had not approved the proposal for a negative trade list regime with New Delhi, which would be the first step to according the Most Favoured Nation status as required under World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules. There were brave smiles all round, but there was nevertheless a perception that the India-Pak lovefest reached an anti-climax on Valentine’s Day. Meanwhile, individual delegates did their bit to balance the trade surplus in favour of India by going on shopping sprees. The main item was the famous lawn material, with the larger Pakistani companies even having Indian film stars as their brand ambassadors.
ISLAMABAD, February 15-16
After taking a seven o’clock PIA flight from Karachi to ‘Isloo the beautiful’, the delegation again move in a security convoy to the highly-fortified Serena hotel. It was then straight to a luncheon meeting hosted by the Rawalpindi Chamber of Commerce and Industry — where the heads of India’s FICCI and CII tried to convince their hosts that opening up to Indian trade would be a good thing for Pakistan, using the analogy of Indian economy 20 years ago.
The hotel was packed with visiting foreign delegations of over eight nationalities, with Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad in town, as well bureaucrats from the eight South Asian countries for a SAFTA meeting.
After two days of wondering whether there will be any substantial takeaways from the historic visit, the hosts delivered. Pakistan promised to adhere to the February deadline for announcing the negative trade list regime, promising that it will be brought again before the federal cabinet in the next meeting. Sharma and Fahim were the lead stories in the next day’s papers in Pakistan — their smiling, handshaking mugs splashed on the front page.
For Indian officials, there was no hiding of relief that Sharma’s visit finally became a success.