ISLAMABAD, Pakistan ? U.S. commanders in Afghanistan want to get war supplies rolling across Pakistan?s borders again. So do Pakistanis in places both high and low ? from officials trying to balance the nation?s budget to black marketeers who stand ready to plunder the NATO-contracted trucks and oil tankers expected to shortly resume passage into Afghanistan after nearly six months of closed border crossings.
The deal isn?t quite sealed, but Pakistan is set to announce as early as Wednesday its decision to again allow onto its territory the convoys that provision U.S.-backed international forces trying to wind down the decade-long war against the Taliban.
Pakistan?s decision, after months of political posturing and delicate negotiations, is likely to ease strains between Washington and Islamabad. For its renewed cooperation, Pakistan would reap higher tariffs and a payout of at least $1.3 billion in withheld Coalition Support Funds for its contribution to the fight against militant Islamic extremists.
Officials on both sides say the agreement won?t provide Pakistan the full apology it wants for an incident in which U.S. jets and helicopters mistakenly bombed two outposts on the Afghan border in November, killing 24 Pakistani soldiers. The deaths prompted Pakistan?s decision to close the borders.
But for traders such as Baz Muhammad Afridi, happy days will be back again when the blockade ends. Afridi, 46, who vends looted goods in a bazaar on the outskirts of Peshawar known informally as ?the U.S. market,? nearly abandoned his business because of dwindling stock.
Afridi said he sold food, daggers, computers and engineering equipment that had all been pillaged from the supply convoys. ?We were getting quality goods, technological gadgets and American flags at very reasonable prices,? he said Tuesday.
?But the supply suspension nearly stopped our business, and it becomes hard to meet even daily expenses,? Afridi said. ?Lower-middle-class people like me will be happy with the reopening of NATO supply lines.?
On the macroeconomic level, Islamabad needs help, too. The $1.3 billion has already been penciled into the proposed national budget, according to officials in the Finance Ministry.
And there are other beneficiaries. The Pakistani military, sometimes called Army Inc. because of its sizable stake in commerce, corporations and land holdings, indirectly controls 30 percent of the NATO oil tanker contracts, according to local transporter associations.
The military, which played the key role in the NATO-provisioning negotiations with U.S. and Afghan National Army commanders over the weekend, declined to comment on its share of the supply business.
Tribal-area militants will profit, too: They demand protection money from the companies that haul the freight. And they launch attacks to get their slice of what?s inside the steel sea-shipping containers that begin their journey at the port of Karachi and travel hundreds of miles through perilous territory.
?Even the Taliban is the beneficiary .?.?. They get weapons and ammunition when they attack the containers,? said a NATO goods black-market trader who asked not to be identified for fear of Taliban reprisals. ?This is one of the financial sources of the militants.?
Source: http://feeds.washingtonpost.com/click.phdo?i=09da43efe268e7d79ec031af9791e091
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