India, Pakistan should have different future from past: Indian HC

LAHORE: Indian High Commissioner Ajay Bisaria on Friday said that India and Pakistan should have future different from the past and must not carry the burden of history.

"Mutual relations should be built on the basis of trade and economy and must be away from violence and war. We should not talk about negative and positive lists rather we should work on the windows of opportunities," he added.

He was speaking at the Lahore Chamber of Commerce & Industry. LCCI President Malik Tahir Javaid, Senior Vice President Khawaja Khawar Rashid, Vice President Zeshan Khalil and Executive Committee Members also spoke.

The Indian high commissioner said that there was no better way of improving bilateral relations than mutually beneficial economic ties. He added that both Pakistan and India needed to take more steps to remove non-tariff barriers that were a major impediment to bilateral trade relations.

He said that removal of non-tariff barriers, liberalization of visa and normalization of mutual relation could bring the two-way trade to the height of $ 30 billion.

The two-third population of India was below the age of 35 and same was in Pakistan as 65% people of Pakistan were under the age of 35, he said and added, both the countries had a lot of potential to cater to each other.

"The Chambers of Commerce & Industry of both countries are the most important lobby as not only they can play an instrumental role in strengthening mutual trade and economic ties but they can also influence the policy makers", the Indian high commissioner said.

LCCI President Malik Tahir Javaid said: "We have been witnessing these cycles time and again that first there is a trust deficit and some joint efforts are made for trust building then a bad incident happens and we end up yet again at trust deficit.

One such incident must not halt the process of relation building." He added that both countries should give the peace another chance to prevail in the region for the youth and coming generations.

LCCI Senior Vice President Khawaja Khawar Rashid and Vice President Zeshan Khalil also called for joint efforts for trade normalization and for removing of non-trade barriers.

They suggested establishment of a common area at border where businessmen of the both countries could meet each other for business deals.