THE latest Congressional resolution on Pakistan by the US lawmakers is seen by many in Pakistan as US’ interventionist approach in Pakistan’s domestic affairs. Needless to say, it is not the US business to teach sermons: how to govern Pakistan. Instead of accusing us, Washington must look into its own affairs. To divert the global attention about US falling image because of its dubious, unjust policy to directly and indirectly protect Israel (despite its war crimes and crimes against humanity), the US lawmakers have devised this centrifugal strategy to criticize Pakistan, which is by no means acceptable to the people and the Government of Pakistan and hence on Friday, a resolution was moved by the Pakistan Parliament against this US measure.
The response from Pakistan: the resolution moved on Friday affirmed Pakistan’s stance of its Parliamentary freedom by arguing, ‘’The House deeply regrets that the subject resolution clearly reflects an incomplete and wrong understanding of the political and electoral process of Pakistan’’. The Lower House Resolution stated that Pakistan “will not accept any interference in its internal affairs, and the subject resolution is an attempt to undermine the state.”In tandem with the Friday Passed resolution, the National Assembly Speaker Mr Ayaz Sadiq on the eve of international day of Parliamentarism (June 30) reiterated: “A strong Parliament is the cornerstone of a stable democracy, and it is essential for ensuring the protection and promotion of democratic values,” he continued, adding: “The National Assembly is committed to strengthening the institution and ensuring the supremacy of Parliament in the country.”
US has undermined Global HR order: US paradoxical sermons on human rights and democracy: Are human rights beyond redemption? They propose a paradox— are being taught by the US lawmakers while ignoring the very fact that making cognitive sense of their exploitation by global power itself—richly vindicated by the fact that despite Israel’s brutal killing of 39000 Gazans in the ongoing Israeli war in Gaza, US does not accuse Israel of its heinous violation of human rights and democratic values—although as ‘’the project of consciousness raising is necessarily part of the same systemic violation”. Although Biden administration officials have become increasingly outspoken about the humanitarian catastrophe resulting from the war, they have largely avoided punitive measures against Israel.
Truly said, in order to salvage human rights as a form of resistance, we must condemn the processes of inequality and oppression in which they are entrenched whilst showing close relationship with global hierarchies of power. It is no more a shrouded truth that because of its strategic interests the US lawmakers demonstrate no serious concern regarding Israeli Indian human rights atrocities in Gaza and Kashmir. This American double standard on human rights violations is not yet without harbouring fatal consequences on the compliance of international law order. Whereas, these consequences intrinsically cause the production of anti-Americanism in the deprived Muslim communities.
Strategic pondering in US-Pak relations: Many in Washington’s policy circles hold negative and biased views of Pakistan, branding it with a cradle of terrorism. Conversely to the prejudicial American thinking, many Pakistanis do disapprove the US-fostered policies in the region and particularly what they importantly and strategically discern Washington’s use of the country as a “frontline state” in both the Cold War and the War on Terror, thereby claiming tens of thousands of lives accompanied by fatal consequences in terms of economy and Pakistan’s territorial stability being vulnerable because of the US-imposed 18-year war on terror. And yet sadly, the Pakistani chartered grievances are largely dismissed in Washington as ‘’self–inflicted.’’
Pakistan still faces the consequences of US-left legacy In Afghanistan: It goes without saying that Pakistan has to fulfill its national security imperatives: Currently, Pakistan’s core focus is on its national security andhence, it is launching operation Azm-e-Istehkam which is a multi-domain, multi-agency and national vision to bring about sustainable peace and stability in the country. “Its objective is to instill a new spirit and drive in the ongoing implementation of the revised National Action Plan, which was launched after a national consensus in the political arena,” the Government statement said.
Today, Pakistan holds top priority of maintaining balanced relations with the US beyond global power competition: Needless to say, Washington and Islamabad share a history of evolving positive partnerships and sharing a legacy of tense distancing phases. Facts richly support the thesis that successive U.S. administrations during the Cold and the post-Cold War period sought cooperation with Pakistan on an ad hoc basis to accomplish short-term security interests. As for Pakistan, in the post-9/11 phase, Islamabad leveraged the relationship for its own strategic goals— a situation further compounded by the botched U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021.
Strategically, Washington now uses the great power competition lens, rather than the counterterrorism one, to navigate its foreign policy towards Pakistan. Consequently, Pakistan’s close relationship with China has factored into Washington’s regional calculus, thereby excluding Pakistan from the National Security Strategy (NSS). But the truth unfolds the realization that this myopic, reactive approach of policymakers from both sides has resulted in the need for a framework for engagement beyond short-term strategic fixtures.
Doctrinally, the US policymakers should not treat Pakistan as an arena for great power competition. It is time that Washington broadly and privately encourage an atmosphere of propelling a bilateral dialogue between India and Pakistan whereas it should also take advantage of utilizing Pakistan as a pathway to re–engage with the Afghanistan question and avoid isolating Afghanistan in a way that will increase regional instability with security ramifications for Pakistan. Thus, the US must adopt a multilateral and pragmatic approach to the Afghan Taliban. Washington must acknowledge the fact that ever since US has left Afghanistan in August 2021, Pakistan has been constantly facing the export of terrorism from Afghanistan.
—The writer, an independent ‘IR’ researcher-cum-international law analyst based in Pakistan, is member of European Consortium for Political Research Standing Group on IR, Critical Peace & Conflict Studies, also a member of Washington Foreign Law Society and European Society of International Law. He deals with the strategic and nuclear issues.
