Iran Progressed Despite restrictions

Wouldn’t it be surprising for a common citizen of a country like ours that the gross domestic product (GDP) of Holland, Saudi Arabia, Switzerland, Turkey, Sweden, Belgium and Taiwan is less than that of our neighbouring brother country Iran? It seems that the economy of Iran is stronger and more stable than the economies of the mentioned countries.

Iran’s four major trading partners are Asian countries and three of them are our best friends. Iran’s largest trading partner is China; followed by the United Arab Emirates, India and Turkey. Bilateral trade of all these countries with Iran is up to billions of dollars, while Pakistan-Iran bilateral trade is very less and it seems that the two countries are far away from each other and do not seem like neighbours at all.

The biggest sector of the Iranian economy is petrol and gas but agriculture is also very important. Among the major economies of the world, Iran is ranked 17th, while unfortunately, Pakistan is ranked 48th. Economically, Bangladesh, the Philippines, Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand, Egypt and South Africa are also ahead of us.

We will limit ourselves to Iran in this expression. The largest part of Iran’s economy is under state control, while in Pakistan, during the reign of General Zia, we were forced to privatise the state entities, which proved to be disastrous for the national economy. We privatised profitable production units and enterprises in countless sectors, which not only resulted in massive loss of national assets but also allowed loss-making enterprises to remain in state ownership.

On the contrary, the fast growing sectors were handed over to the private moneylenders, creating mass unemployment. The rulers started selling national assets and institutions to make up for the losses arising out of their bad governance.

In Iran, the national assets and institutions were valued and the privatisation of entities was not allowed. According to the natural resources that Iran has, it can be called a rich country. It has the fourth largest reserves of crude oil and the second largest reserves of natural gas in the world. It is a sign of caution and frugality in the management of national resources that 20 years ago, when I went to Iran with a delegation of senior journalists, I was surprised to find that Iran used to ration oil for cars and not more than three litres of petrol was given to a car in a day. The major government officials, businessmen, shopkeepers, employees of the private and public institutions use public transport for commuting, as do the workers in mills and factories. In the same visit, there was another surprising revelation, which all our journalist friends were shocked to hear.

We were invited for dinner by our country’s press attaché. Irshad Ahmed Haqqani, Ziauddin, Tariq Warsi, Ayaz Badshah, Mahmood Al Aziz, Sohail Qalandar and other friends were present on the occasion.

During this period, Pakistan’s military attaché in Iran was Brigadier Zahid Mubasher, who later retired as a major general after holding many other responsibilities. He said that in Tehran and other cities, the military officers of the rank of captain, major and colonel spend their free time driving taxis after performing their normal duties for extra income.

The officials and the people of the country that produces the fourth largest oil and the second largest gas in the world did not accept the dictates of the international financial institutions, avoiding the debt by accepting rationing.

Iran’s revolution took place in 1979 and soon after it was subject to economic, financial and even travel restrictions, which were imposed by the world powers.

After the Iranian revolution, when the Iranian citizens and students who were the followers of Ayatollah Khomeini took American diplomatic staff hostage, Iran was isolated in the Western world. A few months after the revolution, in November of the same year, the deadlock that arose in Iran’s relations cannot return to normal but Iran created a balance of relations with the European countries, which to a large extent, had always remained intact.

Probably, by not taking dictation, establishing a balance in relations with the developed world and sticking to the independent policy, Iran has not neglected to maintain the pace of development even in the worst conditions.

Now, the reports of international organisations show that Iran has become the richest country in the Middle East and has overtaken Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar and Kuwait.

Iran has great importance in the geopolitical position of the Asian continent and it uses its position with full freedom and independence. It does not give up its historical interests under external pressure. It neither freezes projects like the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) nor withdraws from important projects such as Pak-Iran gas under pressure. Remember, when Nawaz Sharif became the prime minister for the third time in 2013, he invited a few journalists to attend the cabinet meeting in the early days of his government. In that meeting, our friends asked several important questions, to which the prime minister answered. I asked him two questions, one was what will be the status of the Pakistan-Iran gas pipeline and the other question was why the volume of trade between the two countries is less than $500 million, while the volume of bilateral trade between Iran and India has reached $10 billion.

A side question was that Pakistan has received money for wheat supply from Iran but is not supplying wheat there, why is that? Nawaz Sharif asked his two ministers, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and Khurram Dastgir, to answer these questions, so both of them dismissed my two-and-a-half questions by referring to the international restrictions on gas pipelines, bilateral trade and wheat supply.

I emphasised a lot that the global sanctions do not apply to India, Turkey, France, Germany, Spain, China and other countries. Even today, if we promote trade with Iran and other brotherly countries, we can overcome many economic problems and crises. We do not think it is right to take the diplomatic staff of any other country hostage but the historical record shows that some assets of the former Shah of Iran were returned from the United States in exchange for the release of the American diplomats. While oil and gas are the main elements in the Iranian economy, copper, iron, chromium, lead, zinc, mineral glass, sulfur and many other metals are also important. Iran has surpassed Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Turkey and other rich Gulf states in development, despite the worst problems, sanctions and serious political and social difficulties.

We have to keep one more thing in mind. The per capita income of Iran is around $16,000 but the per capita cost of accommodation and food in Iran is very low. In this, among the four big cities of Iran; Shiraz, Tehran, Isfahan and Mashhad, Shiraz is relatively expensive and Mashhad is considered to be the cheapest city, while Tehran and Isfahan also cannot be considered as expensive cities. The social interaction and behaviour of the ordinary citizens of Iran is very high.

Iran and Pakistan are two close neighbours and we have centuries-old relations. Many times, the governments of the two countries made announcements to promote commercial, business, cultural, teaching and educational relations between the two countries but every time several elements hindered the development of friendly and fraternal warmth in these relations. You can change everything in the world but you cannot change your geographical position and neighbours.

The leadership of both countries should move forward in view of the historical interests of the people of their respective countries and start a new era of history. If the policies of the nations were not subject to the wishes of the rulers, the volume of Pakistan-Iran trade in the region would have increased a lot and we would also have been taking very cheap gas. Is there someone who hears the trumpet in the choir and begins a new era of relationships.