The "aam aadmi" of India and Pakistan is not really interested in the politics, but wants to carry on with life on a day-to-day basis

Pakistani foreign office spokesperson, Aizaz Ahmed Chaudhury said, India and Pakistan need to address the mistrust that exists between them, responding to prime minister Dr Manmohan Singh's statement that Pakistan cannot win a war against India in his life time!

Every two years, the Pakistani army's general headquarters at Rawalpindi publishes the "green book" which provides a rare insight into the organisation’s internal debates. In this, it is reported, that Pakistani Major General Shaukat Iqbal has stated that the deepening Indo-USA relationship could pose a serious threat to the integrity of Pakistan.

The man on the street, now popularly known as the "aam aadmi", on both sides of the border, is not really interested in the politics played but wants to carry on his life on a day-to-day basis. Truly, he is a pawn whose moves are decided by the politicans in power.

In the meanwhile, Shabhaz Sharif, who is actually the brother of Pakistan prime minister Nawaz Sharif, chief minister of Punjab province, has called for early resumption of peace talks between India and Pakistan.

Talks on normalisation procedure between India and Pakistan, between Anand Sharma, Indian Commerce and Industry Minister with Khurram Dastgir Khan, Minister of State for Commerce began with a view to cover trade of more items through Wagah border, opening of bank branches, commencement of electricity supplies, and so on, continued, in the presence of Shabhaz Sharif. This is expected to continue during the ensuing meeting when the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) group gathers soon.

On his part, Anand Sharma has shown his keen desire to give enhanced preferential treatment to Pakistani products by bringing down its sensitive list under South Asia Free Trade Agreement. This will bring down the import tariff for all items for Pakistan, except for about 100 items.

Although India and Pakistan have reiterated the urgent and imperative need to work seriously on the Iran-Pakistan-India pipeline that would bring in the much needed gas from Iran, and also supply at competitive rates to Pakistan, work has not been satisfactory. Iran has completed almost 900 km of the pipeline under its control, while hardly any progress has been made on the Pakistani side.

In a similar fashion, the proposed Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India

(TAPI) pipeline has also not made much progress, despite the keen interest and support that USA has given. Yet, with the recent developments that have taken place as a sequel to the nuclear deal with Iran, USA may soften its stand, but one never knows until the mandatory six month period is over and Iran keeps its bargain.

All said and done, it is time that both the prime ministers of India and

Pakistan sit together to at least have preliminary discussions on what is to be done. Indian prime minister Dr Manmohan Singh must reiterate that cross-border ISI-sponsored terror outfits must stop intrusions into the country; no longer should India tolerate these so-called "jehadi" outfits or freedom fighters attacking civilians. Any new attempts at intrusion should be dealt with firmly by the armed forces.

So far, in all these discussions that have been going on for years now, there are no reports, ever, that the question of counterfeit currency (manufactured with Pakistani support and smuggled into the country) has been raised at any level. If this is to be considered as the "Most Favoured Nation" status for India in printing this fake currency, this must stop forthwith, and the Pakistani counterpart must ensure this does not recur.

(AK Ramdas has worked with the Engineering Export Promotion Council of the ministry of commerce. He was also associated with various committees of the Council. His international career took him to places like Beirut, Kuwait and Dubai at a time when these were small trading outposts; and later to the US.)