Few in New Delhi might have noticed a memorandum of understanding signed by the leaders of Pakistan and Afghanistan during early May in Washington about regional trade and transit. But that piece of paper has become the target of intense political hostility in Pakistan.

The media campaign, which appears to be inspired by Pakistan’s security establishment, has been railing and ranting against the dangers of Islamabad letting overland trade in goods between India and Afghanistan.

Here is one recent gem: “It is a huge security concern for the Pakistan Army to quietly watch Indian-made Tata trucks rumbling through Pakistan and traveling on Pakistani freeways. Indian arms have flooded the Federally Administered Tribal Areas and the Swat region; how many more Indian arms will be tolerated by Islamabad?”

What should strike you is not the degree of paranoia, but the fact that this absurd argument has persisted in the face of repeated official clarifications from Islamabad that there will be no unilateral economic concessions to India.

Clearly, the prospect of even limited movement on triangular economic cooperation between Afghanistan, Pakistan and India has triggered off alarm bells in the Army Headquarters at Rawalpindi.

In fact, the memorandum of understanding signed by Presidents Asif Ali Zardari and Hamid Karzai on May 6 during a trilateral interaction with the Obama Administration does not mention India. It does, however, promise that Zardari and Karzai will negotiate a ‘regional trade and transit’ agreement by September 2009.

It is no secret that New Delhi has repeatedly called for open trade and transit arrangements between India, Pakistan and Afghanistan. Do recall the musings of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh a few years ago on having breakfast in Delhi, lunch in Lahore and dinner in Kabul.

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