Mobarik Haider
PM Imran Ahmad Khan said he will now be the global ambassador for Kashmir. Since ambassadors of India and Pakistan are gone and borders between the two countries securely sealed, Mr. Khan seems to think that the world arena of diplomatic conquest is free for him. So he will be on a world tour to talk about an issue that many people believe he knows very little about. All his knowledge will come from Pakistan’s GHQ and Foreign Service bureaucrats.
Wise people say: the test of the pudding is in eating it. The world has tasted Pakistan’s diplomatic pudding again and again for 70 years. Nobody liked it. Why? Because UN had decided to hold a plebiscite in the huge and difficult territory of Jammu Kashmir & Laddakh only after it is demilitarized, which means all parties withdraw their armed controls and leave the people totally free.
The territory is divided and controlled by three nations: China, India and Pakistan. None of them withdraws its military presence and nobody will. So it seems Mr. Khan’s pudding of protests will return home untouched like it always returned, because India has the equal recipe of protests while China is smug like a rock.
Mr. Khan knows it. But his ego does not let him admit. On the other hand his opposition parties shout louder than him to push him into a confrontation. Politicians all over the world are known for their opportunism and lies; but in Pakistan their greed and incompetence has become proverbial. Not one of them had the moral fiber to admit that the issue is dead, that Pakistan needs to look inward to bring some hope and relief to its people.
It is perhaps time to admit that Pakistan had no solid right on Kashmir. It was the land of Shiva and Rama for 4000 years and became a Muslim sultanate only for 400 years. It was never a Caliphate. Aurangzeb’s craze for Sharia ended Muslim rule. Then came Sikh rule and British hegemony till 1947. The Sikh ruler of Kashmir opted to go with India in 1947. Pakistan organized tribal lashkars to occupy the present Pakistani part of Kashmir. Then started the claim that Kashmiris wish to be with Pakistan because of their religion.
History proved the religious basis as wrong in 1971 when the Eastern part of Pakistan fought a bloody war for separation. Right now there are strong separatist tendencies in other parts of Pakistan. Pakistan’s administered Kashmir is in poverty and deprivation. One can only wonder what sickness of thinking makes our Muslim leaders believe that they can unite more areas on the basis of Islam.
There is not much unrest in Kashmir to support the hysteria in Pakistan. Let us hope Mr. Khan, and his generals who seem to love peace will declare peace to build a New Pakistan.
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