FYI. Gangsters on BOTH sides of the border are involved in the illegal trade.
Not sure if Taliban can control any large part of this trade at the moment.
On Punjab/Sindh border, smugglers are obviously non-Talib Indians and Pakistanis.
On Af - Pak border, the smugglers are local criminals and they may be allied with Taliban on the "need to get protection" basis.
Both the countries must recognize and then legalize this trade.
For example, Indian government for religious reasons, is not allowing open export of cows for the meat markets of Pak.
Guess what? the smugglers cowboys bring "live cows" across the Punjab/Sindh border and hand them over to Pakistani counter parts.
Similarly Pak government has banned open import of liquor.
So! the Indian smugglers bring truck loads of liquor to the border and Pakistani side of smugglers move that stuff from the border to the cities.
When India, Afghanistan, and Central Asian republics suffers from bad harvest of food crops, Pakistani smugglers ship truckloads of illegal rice, wheat and wheat flour to the neighboring countries.
These are but few examples of the religious and nationalistic madness that turns ordinary trade into black market trade.
Sadly!
And Pakistani taxpayers lose big time. (and perhaps Indian taxpayers too).
Dude, any idiot with even a basic understanding of economics can grasp this issue. Tade= money! Big surprise.
The issue here is one of politics. Unless the Indians decide its time to resolve the issues, which include Kashmir foremost, there cannot be and should not be any economic cooperation. Up to now there has been absolutely no sign of any form of cooperation on the part of Indians. Even prior to the Mumbai attacks, we had absolutely no movement on any of the key issues. It was honestly getting ridiculous.
And to think we would give them access to Afghanistan through Pak territory is beyond stupid. Its one thing to give the enemy access to the Pakistani Market, but to give them easy access to another neighbor which has a history of hostility towards Pak!
We might as well shoot ourselves in the foot.