“Geography is very important.”
“Hmmmm.”
“Well it is you know.”
“Our leaders have always said we are geographically very well placed – how we will become rich by opening a land route to Central Asian Republics, how we will get cheap electricity from these energy rich countries and how…”
“Have you heard of the proverb take politicians claim with a pinch of salt.”
“The losers, the winners, and the sidelined in the Gilgit-Baltistan elections….”
“You don’t listen to me, do you? You really are in the wrong profession – you should become a politician….”
“OK, OK complete your thought?”
“What maybe a pinch of salt to one person maybe a whole salt mine to another.”
“That’s a new one”
“Our land route to the Central Asian Republics is through Afghanistan and that’s one big salt mine in our way to trading with the Central Asian Republics. Why are you laughing?”
“Well it’s not only politicians who wanted to open trade, if you recall the donor agencies staff, I am referring to Asian Development Bank and World Bank staff who proposed TAPI gas pipeline – Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India and India is the only country that said it was a security issue and backed off and….”
“Hmmm it never went off the ground though I hear there is some construction and what?”
“Construction will jumpstart the economies of all these countries – remember the Khan administration’s…”
“Gogi needs to return and…”
“Shut up. Anyway when I mentioned geography being important I was referring to Iran taking advantage of its geography to control the Strait of Hormuz….”
“And to counterstrike effectively and….”
“No that is entirely on their preparedness for war – underground missiles and their factories and….”
“But war has changed, we need to begin building some drone factories here because Iran and Ukraine have shown to the world that warfare is now asymmetric – a weaker adversary can beat a much stronger….”
“Hmmm so developing countries need not spend too much on procuring expensive…”
“Well let’s hope India buys more French…”
“Good one.”
Copyright Business Recorder, 2026
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