Sino-Pak bus service

The formal launch of the first ever cross-border bus service between Pakistan and China will, certainly, come to many in both the countries like a long cherished dream come true. This should be all the more so, as it encompasses two routes - Gilgit-Kashgar; and Sust-Tashurgan.
Synchronise as this event does with President Musharraf's current epochal visit to China, it will be viewed as auguring well for adding newer dimensions to the exemplary relationship between the two countries. Reference, in this regard, may also be made to the candid remarks from Minister for Communication, Muhammad Shamim Siddiqui, while inaugurating the history-making bus service.
Describing it as a historic event, which would further boost the relations between the two nuclear neighbours, he pointed out that the Gilgit-Kashgar bus service would operate on daily basis, covering a distance of around 700 km in nearly 14 hours.
Noting that Pakistan government has taken a number of steps to develop communication links with its neighbouring countries, he also stated that it is finalising the modalities of launching a bus service between Pakistan and Iran too.
The minister is also reported to have said that dualisation of Karakoram Highway would help Pakistan open up its northern corridor for trade with neighbouring countries.
Speaking on the occasion, the Speaker of the Northern Areas Legislative Council, Malik Miskeen, congratulated the federal government for launching the bus service, which should further point to enhanced prospects of development of closer relations between Pakistan and China and the neighbouring countries as well.
It is noteworthy that Pakistan already provides vital overland routes, besides intra-regional and inter-regional links for mutually beneficial trade and energy transactions. Needless to point out, it is Pakistan's sustained efforts, of course, with Chinese co-operation, in that direction that has made the task worthwhile.
Among other things, the two countries have decided to initiate a regular bus service on daily basis to facilitate people on either side to travel between Gilgit and Kashgar. This decision was taken at a meeting of senior officials in Urumqi, late in March this year.
According to the protocol initialled on that occasion, one bus from each side was marked for operation between Sust and Tashurgan, thereby for the first time, linking Pakistan's Northern Areas to China's western region.
The protocol envisaged subsequent launch of another bus service thrice a week linking Kashgar, Sust, Khunjrab and Gilgit. Notably, provision was also made for starting a goods transportation service via Khunjrab pass, for which elaborate details have been worked out.
It was agreed that each side would issue 3,000 permits to their registered transport operators to carry goods between the two countries, and that each permit would remain valid for one-round trip. The number of permits could be gradually increased in accordance with the demand of the truckers.
It will thus be noted that the Urumqi protocol marked the first vital step towards channelling the existing road network between the two countries, paving the way for increased people-to-people contact through the most difficult mountainous terrain.
With Karakoram Highway, already serving as a "Friendship Bridge", the bus service now opened should prove instrumental in providing China with access to more Central Asian markets, besides facilitating energy transportation, of course, to the advantage of Pakistan and the other countries, benefiting from it directly or indirectly.