Theatrics at LoC

The barter trade allowed across LoC at two points – Uri and Poonch – has been plagued with problems right from its inception. Meanwhile there has been no trade for three weeks on Poonch- Rawlakote route. A Kashmir Life report.

“We have tried our best to promote movement of people and trade on the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad and Poonch-Rawalkot roads. We now want to take similar steps for the Kargil-Skardu route. You may recall that when I inaugurated the Muzaffarabad Bus Service, I had hoped that it would just be the beginning. We have been consistently trying to increase trade and commerce between different parts of Jammu and Kashmir. We want to look at all possible measures to strengthen links between people on both sides of the LoC,” Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said in his June 7, SKUAST Convocation speech in Srinagar.

The statement made many traders to laugh. “Prime Minister’s speech writers seem to be unaware of the happenings on ground,” said one trader. There has been no trade on the Poonch-Rawlakot road through Chakan-da-Bagh for the last three weeks and it seems impossible for the fourth week as well.

It was in the second week of May when the Trade Facilitation Officer (TFO) prevented the import of Ajwain from PaK. It happened in Poonch as well as Salamabad on Jhelum Valley Road (JVR) simultaneously. They said the spice does not figure in the list of 21 items that the two sides have agreed to barter.

TFO Poonch, in fact, directed against off-loading 14-truckloads of Ajwain forcing traders to send them back to PaK. However, the traders on the other side had offloaded all the 25 truckloads thereby adding to the trade deficit. “At Salamabad also the TFC sent six truckloads of Ajwain back to Muzaffarabad,” Tariq Ahmad, a trader from Uri said.

Unlike the traders at Salamabad (Uri), their counterparts in Poonch did not take the decision quietly. Insisting that the TFO directions are arbitrary and are against the standard operations procedure (SOP), they decided against conducting trade. At one point of time, they were even approached by their PaK counterparts to resume trade but they did not agree.

This is not the first time that the officials supposed to facilitate trade are invoking different reasons to prevent import or export of one or the other item. In fact all the items that started making brisk business were banned. It started with garlic that at one point of time constituted around 90 percent of the imports from PaK. Authorities took the pathogen route to ban it. It was ginger and then it was Pakistan banning export of green gram to J&K. Same happened to coconut, bananas and other south Indian fruits which were barred from exports for being not produced in J&K. These made the bulk of the barter trade from this side.

Ban on export of green gram to J&K by Islamabad – they say bulk exports shot up its prices to the level that it is not being afforded by people in Pakistan- is running riot with the traders at Salamabad. “We have stopped accepting any imports because most of the items they send us, lack a good market here,” one trader from Salamabad said. “We were getting good prices of green gram but it has been stopped.”

Prior to the latest ban on Ajwain, there was an interesting anecdote reported from Salamabad when the rival armies prevented return of respective convoys. Pakistan army closed the gates saying they will not permit 52 trucks to return to Salamabad from Chakothi unless their convoy of trucks is not permitted to return first.

The crisis erupted when 27 PaK trucks crossed to Salamabad but were not unloaded as the TFC said they lacked the required documents. Pakistani side closed the gate and did not permit the J&K trucks to return home. Truckers from two sides were on the other side almost in a hostile situation. The crisis started when the customs officials said the medicinal herbs that some of the trucks were carrying were not permitted for trade. Though Quarantine Department officials differed with their opinion, it triggered a crisis that was unfriendly by all means. The trucks from either side were cleared the next day.

But continued boycott by the traders of the trans-LoC trade forced authorities to act. Deputy Commissioner Poonch finally contacted his counterpart on the other side of the LoC to arrange a meeting of the traders from the two sides. The meeting took place on June 9.

It was an impressive gathering, perhaps the largest ever congregation of people who have ever met on the LoC on zero-point (named Rah-e-Milan – a meeting road). There were 69 traders from J&K and 113 from PaK. Escorted by their respective officials, under the gaze of the rival armies they spent over 150 minutes discussing issues. It was a luncheon meeting hosted by the Poonch side. Though this meeting is yet to pave way for the restoration of the trade for the fourth consecutive week, it was an interesting meeting of sorts.

The traders meeting on the most militarized de facto border led to the setting up of a 14-member trans-LoC association with seven members from each side. This association will not only be the dispute resolution mechanism but also a currency conversion system besides taking decisions of mutual interest. And it started taking decisions.

They have been bartering merchandise at the rate of (Pakistani) Rs 1.62 for every Indian rupee for last three months but now the traders will trade at Rs 1.82 for every Indian rupee for the next three months. This was the major decision of the newly floated association. They started using a fixed currency rate for a specific period to avoid the currency fluctuations to avoid confusions in the zero duty trade that still lacks formal communication system and banking relationship.

This is the second such meeting that took place at zero point in the region in last seven months. Though around two months back the officials from the two sides had facilitated a meeting, it was boycotted by the Poonch traders saying it was organized in the evening hours for a short duration. Traders spent around two hours on Wednesday last to reconcile their accounts.

The two sides agreed that they will suggest their respective governments to delete some of the trading items from the list because there are no takers for that. At the same time, the PaK traders gave their counterparts a list of 30 items that they have been asking the Muzaffarabad government to include in the trading items list. The Poonch traders handed over a list of 100 other items that the central government is keen to include in the list. Besides, the two sides agreed to request the respective governments to increase the trading days from two days a week to four and doubling the number of trucks from 25 to 50 a day from each side. They appealed New Delhi and Islamabad to increase the number of items from 25 to 50 and stop creating hurdles.

Even if the newly floated trade body on the Poonch front will try to settle problems, the traders in Poonch continue to be at the receiving end of the situation. Under the garb of the security, the police (trade is accusing a DySP rank officer) in Poonch have created a list of as many as 26 truck drivers who have been blacklisted from driving any truck to the other side of the LoC. They have been given no reason for their blacklisting even after the trades sought it formally. In May when police found  six of these drivers around, they ensured no trade takes place. Police is checking the antecedents of the drivers before permitting them to ply on this track.

At the same time, the traders face a lot of corruption and nepotism. Pawan Anand, one of the trade representatives said they are being harassed by police in the name of security and by civil authorities. No trade can take place as long as authorities do not issue permits. Traders said in most of the cases corruption and connections are the main factors for issuing a permit. Of the 160 firms registered for transacting trans-LoC trade more than half are registered in the name of the siblings of the government officials, a recent report said.

Newspaper reports suggest that Matloob Khan, ADC Poonch, who was the then custodian of cross-LoC trade has registered his firm M/S Roofi Traders. It is run by his son Raouf Ahmed Khan, a resident of Chandak. Mohammed Rashid, a head clerk of District Industries Centre, and presently posted at TFC has registered two firms in the name of his two sons – M/S Quadri Traders run by son Jehangir and M/S A G Store owned by another son Javed.

Since only 25 trucks can be permitted to crossover with merchandise a day – twice in a week, getting a ‘permit’ involves corruption, traders allege. They even say that clearing trucks and their drivers for cross-over with merchandise is also a good source of corruption in the belt.