As part of this country's much cherished desire to enhance engagement with Central Asia, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in June embarked on a two-day visit to Tajikistan where he signed five MoUs/agreements with his host, President Emomali Rahmon Sharipovich. A joint statement issued at the end of the visit noted that a vast potential existed for expansion of trade and investment, energy, defense and security ties as well as co-operation in the field of education, culture and people-to-people contacts. In more concrete terms, the two leaders agreed to increase bilateral trade to $500 million and to put in place a Preferential Trade Agreement. Toward that end, they decided to establish a joint business council. From the Tajik perspective, Pakistan held out a particularly attractive offer of providing the shortest access route to seaports at Karachi and Gwadar.
A key issue of interest to this country is a CASA (Central Asia and South Asia) power project, better known as CASA 1000. Uncertainty hovers over it owing to an inordinate delay. Notably, it is a 1300MW project under which Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan are to supply surplus electricity to Pakistan via Afghanistan (Kabul is interested in 300MW) to help this country meet its growing energy requirements. For a time, the US has been pushing the project as an alternative to Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline project. Yet it remains held up due to haggling over pricing as well as political instability in Afghanistan. Speaking at a joint news conference with the Tajik President, Nawaz Sharif had said that both countries attach great importance to early completion of the project, but gave no timeline for its completion.
This government is known to be eager on the idea of increasing connectivity with the Central Asian region. No wonder the two leaders underscored the need for strengthening transit and transportation facilities, including a rail link, through greater co-operation at the regional level. Tajikistan and Pakistan are separated by a mere 17 kilometer stretch of Wakhan Corridor that passes through Afghanistan. The Prime Minister talked of connecting both countries through Chitral-Ishakosim using this corridor. But for the idea to translate into reality, Afghanistan has to be at peace with itself. Pakistan and Tajikistan as next-door neighbours of that war-ravage country, and to different extent affectees of its war, even otherwise have a vested interest in seeing a peaceful and stable Afghanistan post US combat troops withdrawal by the end of this year. In fact, more than anything else, the Prime Minister's visit to Dushanbe seems to have been aimed at co-ordinating support for what Islamabad has been advocating as an inclusive Afghan-led and afghan-owned peace process.
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