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Subject:
Pakistan And Iran
Europa
3/7/2008 10:28:40 AM
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I have noticed recently that Western nations spearheaded by the United States as well as regional powers like india are completely against any close relations between the neighboorly countries of Iran and Pakistan.
Both countries have immense potential if they were to strengthen their respective economies and increase trade with one another. But despite many statements and claims to this, not much has actually been done in this direction. The current Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline project, was more or less hijacked and delayed now for some 10 years because of the possible economic dividends it would have been had the pipeline gone all the way to india but the fact of the matter is, had a pipeline been built by now between Iran and Pakistan, it would have benefitted both countries considerable, helped integrate their economies more and would cost a fraction of the price.
From what I gather, when the British conquered Pakistan in the late 19th century (Pakistan was then under the rule of Afghanistan with some small princely states), several policies were put in place to limit the influence of Persia on the country. One such example was the removing of the Persian Language (the former lingua franca of Pakistan for the past 1500 years) and its replacement with Urdu and English, so its seems that this policy of limiting interaction between Pakistan and Iran has been in place for quite some time now.
Though Pakistan is a developing country with Iran being a medium devoloped country, both countries offer considerable opportunities to the other and would form natural allies. Add to this that Pakistan has the 2nd largest Shia population in the world after Iran at about 40 million.
Im curious to know wether Iranians/Persians are aware of the enormous potential in improving their relations and trade with a neighbooring country it shares a border with? |
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