Tarn Taran village residents expect goodwill gesture from Pakistan PM Shehbaz Sharif

Tribune News Service

Neeraj Bagga

Amritsar, April 15

After the election of Shehbaz Sharif as the Prime Minister of Pakistan, Sikh devotees, importers and natives of Jati Umra village in Tarn Taran district recalled the tenure of Nawaz Sharif who had welcomed the Delhi-Lahore bus service. They expect similar goodwill gestures from Shehbaz Sharif, former Chief Minister of Punjab (Pakistan).

Villagers happy at Shehbaz’s elevation

• Jati Umra villagers are pleased at Shehbaz’s elevation. In 2013, Shehbaz along with his family had paid floral tributes at the tomb of his grandfather. Then he had interacted with two oldest residents - Massa Singh and Gian Singh - and learnt about the time of his grandfather. Massa Singh expired and infirm Gian Singh is now battling with weakness and age-related diseases.

Residents of Jati Umra were pleased at Shehbaz’s elevation. Nirmal Singh Sandhu, a village resident, recalled his visit to the village in 2013. “Shehbaz along with his family had paid floral tributes at the tomb of his grandfather. Then he had interacted with two oldest residents — Massa Singh and Gian Singh — and learnt about the time of his grandfather.” Sadly, Massa Singh expired and infirm Gian Singh was now battling with age-related weakness and diseases.

Bhupinder Singh, a Sikh devotee, recalled bus services like Delhi-Lahore, Amritsar-Nankana Sahib and others had normalised the relations between the countries after a bitter Kargil war. Now, with the change of guard in Pakistan, similar goodwill gestures must be renewed to bring common people closer to each other.

Rajan Bedi, importer of goods from Pakistan, said the election of a person from the Sharif family was a good sign of improvement in bilateral ties of the two countries. The entire Sharif family is into business and they know its value. When they were in power last time, the trade was in full swing between the two countries in general and the Wagah-Attari border in particular.

Even as Shehbaz preferred good ties with India provided it resolved the Kashmir issue first, Bedi preferred to dub it as a political statement. He said the Kashmir issue was not resolved when the trade had been taking place. “He had imported sugar in bulk from Sharif Sugar Mills and Chowdhury Sugar Mills, both run by the Sharif family. He vividly remembers he had met them at their joint family home at Raiwind situated on the outskirts of Lahore.

About Rs. 4,000 crore annual turnover trade used to take place through the Wagah-Attari joint check post. Entire trade has been lying closed for the past over three years. The trade had seen a turnaround after the setting up of the integrated check post (ICP) here in 2012. Earlier, the annual average of the import-export was Rs 2,300 crore.

There are about 150 importers and exporters from North India, nearly 15 clearing agents, cargo transporters, thousands of porters, drivers, cleaners and others who either had lost their jobs or suffered a steep fall in their income following the 200 per cent duty hike for trade with Pakistan and withdrawal of the MFN status by India following the Pulwama attack on the CRPF on February 14, 2019. It had brought the entire import and export through the ICP to a halt, besides bringing two nuclear powers on the brink of war.

In a similar knee-jerk reaction, Pakistan had suspended all kinds of trade with India after the Indian Government abrogated the special status of Jammu and Kashmir on August 5, 2019.

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