Zaheer Bhatti
WITH India increasingly losing its cool after miscalculating universal people’s reaction to its Kashmir annexation bid on the lines of the Israelis of Palestinian lands, Pakistani political leadership was sadly giving the Indians perfect diversionary material with their puerile infighting and irresponsible utterances. The release of captured Indian pilot by Pakistan after shooting down his fighter craft over Pakistani skies, according to Ayaz Sadiq under Indian pressure as exclaimed by him on the floor of the House inferring from Imran Khan’s absence from the meeting meant to deliberate on whether to release the captured Indian pilot, and implying as if while not attending the core meeting the Prime Minister was taking Modi’s dictation from India, was to say the least, devoid of political maturity expected of a former Speaker of Pakistan’s Parliament who ought to have anticipated twisting by the irresponsible and hyperbole Indian media, always distorting things as it was currently doing in misquoting Fawad Choudhry over his post-Pulwama, telling Pakistani response to Indian misadventure.
Notwithstanding the fact that in-camera proceedings over sensitive national issues must never be discussed in public, belated clarification or rejoinder over such utterances be they from JUP’s Noorani at the PDM Quetta rally or Ayaz Sadiq on the floor of the House, do not repair the damage once done to the national narrative no matter what you say. While the defence forces spokesperson has effectively nailed the distortions and loose talk about sensitive national issues in public rallies, such as the CPEC, Pakistan’s Kashmir case, GB, Missing persons and misquoting the Apex Court to have allegedly passed strictures over Government mal-intentions in filing the Reference against Justice Qazi Faez Isa, by the Jati Umrah offspring shamelessly styling herself as ‘Mother-e-Millat’ and insulting Fatima Jinnah, it was time that the Judiciary took suo motu notice and held the so-called leader in contempt.
It was also time the Treasury Benches now revealing the fact that Pakistan’s defence forces upon retaliatory threat from India to its 27 February 2019 humiliation had pre-emptive knowledge of the intended Indian triple missile strike besides location of their launch sites and warned India of a Pakistani response in multiples, ought to have made it public there and then, coupled with a stern statement of intent blared to the world that while Pakistan had been contemplating release of the captured Indian pilot Abhi Nandan as a goodwill gesture sooner, would now in view of the Indian attitude not only defer return of the Indian Wing Commander but cause delay in the Indian national gallantry award to its pilot for the distinction of having being shot down and captured by Pakistan.
It is often said that dialogue was the only way out to sort out mutual issues, but the world community either fails or deliberately refuses to recognize the fact that the issue of the State of Jammu and Kashmir was not just a territorial dispute but an ideological one arising out of a contradictory formula deliberately applied by the British on the basis of which India and Pakistan were born 73 years ago. While Muslim majority areas of the Indian Union were supposed to accede to Pakistan, India was allowed to manoeuvre retention of an overwhelming Muslim majority State, in collusion with the viceroy and the State’s Hindu Ruler.
Kashmir ought to have acceded to Pakistan also because being an agricultural country it depended heavily on waters flowing out of Kashmir; rightly described as Pakistan’s jugular vein which could not be left at the mercy of a belligerent enemy. History over the past decades has been one of rancour and distrust mainly due to non-acceptance of the creation of a separate Muslim homeland by India, which was diligently crafted by Mohammad Ali Jinnah who is rightly termed the father of the nation. India has made no secret of its negative intent as evidenced by various self-staged acts of terrorism it conveniently puts on Pakistan, simply to avoid dialogue over the core issue.
How can anyone in a sane frame of mind recommend dialogue to settle mutual issues in this backdrop and several other instances of acrimony and hatred displayed by India! PM Imran Khan still harbouring the notion that India was ‘likely’ to use Afghan soil to destabilize Pakistan is an understatement, as if India had not already been doing so ever since the Allied invasion of Afghanistan through its over half a dozen consulates egged on by its new-found ally, in Balochistan, Tribal Areas and Karachi in particular but generally across Pakistan as often boasted by its leadership.
My dear members of the United Nations! Might one ask what does the Indian desire for a dialogue with Pakistan mean after its trampling over your standing Security Council Resolutions, which had directed the two nations to maintain status quo until a plebiscite in the State of Jammu and Kashmir to determine where its inhabitants wished to belong, could be held. It is a rebuke to the World Body that in contemptuous disregard to the UN verdict, India has not only forcibly annexed the territory but stripped its natives of their special independent status underwritten to them by India itself, and illegally allowed Indians to buy lands and properties in its occupied territory of Jammu and Kashmir. It amounts to rub salt over the wound to ask Pakistan to talk to India after unilateral usurpation of the rights of a people you were supposed to deliver through a plebiscite while world conscience appears to have taken a deep nap. But the Pakistani reaction to such crap and rubbish ought to have been more forthright with a pronounced and stern ‘NO’ to any talks unless India reversed it unilateral decisions on the State and submitted to the Security Council Resolutions; the future of Kashmir being the sole bone of contention between the two nuclear neighbours. People talking of normalizing relations when India is hell bent on destabilizing Pakistan, are talking out of their hat.
—The writer is a media professional, member of Pioneering team of PTV and a veteran ex Director Programmes.
