It’s been over two months since the deeply undemocratic and exclusionary Article 370 was abrogated from Kashmir by the Indian government on 6th of August. Pakistan has tried every brick and trick from the book of propaganda from ranting & raving, craving & begging to jabbing & fawning, to construct a case of Indian ‘brutality’ and ‘authoritarianism’ in Kashmir. But everything utterly failed in attracting or consolidating even the Islamic nations – who Pakistan boasts of as its fierce allies bound by religion – let alone the rest of the world. Despite Pakistan’s sweating extra-hour hard work, the international order refused to criticise India or its tectonic shift in the Kashmir. Pakistan lit up a subtle fire, fuelled by the kerosene drops of co-religionism and banal propagandas, and tried to cook dishes for its domestic politics as well as Kashmir policies. The fire, though, backfired burning both the dish and the cook. Instead of drawing global support, it bullwhipped its own position to weakness.
The laws of political-diplomatic forces work in complete contrast to the laws of magnetic forces as in politics similar interests attract each other while opposite interests repel. In the great game of diplomacy – where unwritten rules are more significant than those are written – for consolidation or attraction of global forces – similar interests must be present. Despite instilling and inducing powerful charges, Pakistan failed to attract the world order on the sole grounds of absence of interest. Contrary to attracting, Pakistan’s existing allied forces have started flowing away from it like the water of Indus. And without the presence of any mutual geopolitical or strategic interest stopping this erosion or repulsion would be like stopping the flow of Indus with a soup bowl. It has now reached a situation where, except for Turkey and China, no major global player is keen on stopping by Pakistan’s ideological gate.
What has thrown Pakistan into this deep well of troubles is its own paranoia. The condition of loss of interest in Pakistan for most of the nations of the world was aided and most of the time created by the attitude, character and ideals of none other than the Pakistan itself. No amount of manipulation, sugar coating or covering can change the fact that Pakistan has no one other to blame than itself for its free fall of significance.
The hypocrisy of the highest order deeply embedded in the fundamental structure has intensively affected the claims of Pakistan on the global stage. The entire process of Pakistan championing itself as the human rights saviour has been processed as nothing more than fallacy, ersatz and banality. And the world has reasons to process such. Prime reason being the Pakistani ignorance or deliberate veiling of series of human rights violations within its parameters. The Baloch persecution, Pashtun suppression and Gilgit-Baltistan marginalisation are the results of Pakistan’s inhuman conducts. There are horrific stories of how Pakistani establishment has destroyed lives of millions. A military with expertise in usage of tactics as extrajudicial killings, abduction, forced conversions, mass murders and rape and a nation – whose establishment is the culprit behind gross human rights abuses of its own people – staging itself as a human rights champion would only disclose the real hideous face behind its all fancy portrayal.
The supposed fourth pillar of democracy: media has been reduced to a mere puppet of the establishment in Pakistan. From quantity to quality and from content to concept almost every part of media coverage is a product under state control in Pakistan. At a time when other countries compete for media freedom, Pakistan’s media has been crawling to get even to the basics of freedom. Their media has been under house arrest for years now subjecting to intense state scrutiny. Pakistani Pashtuns’ PTM – a political non-violent movement against Pashtun oppression – has been completely blacked out by the Pakistani media on orders of its military. Not only PTM but also everything related to Balochistan’s freedom struggle has also been censored – again at the orders of the military. At the helm of such strict restrictions and censorships, the government of Pakistan has the audacity to present itself as a media freedom haven. The possibility of the world accepting that presentation is, of course, of the lowest.
Fundamentalism and nationalism one more flawed arrow often shot at India by Pakistan is another reason, more indirectly and less directly, behind the fall of the credibility of Pakistani claims. When Pakistan’s prime minister shot a bunch of preposterous accusations, masqueraded as analysis of the situation, after the article 370 abrogation, the world took no time in showing him the mirror. His attempt at portraying India as an ornery state only ended up him getting reminded of his country’s unconditional addiction to desuetude and religious fundamentalism. There’s absolutely no room for a nation like Pakistan – who has, for its all life, been dependent on extremism – to preach India on nationalism and jingoism. Ignorant of his own country’s ideals and history, Imran Khan criticising India was an indicator of Pakistan’s schizophrenic attitude. And excepting the world to deal with a schizophrenic nation would be an extremely rich expectation.
The authoritarianism of the Pakistani military in almost every prospect of national life in Pakistan is the most probably one of the biggest factors degrading the importance and value of Pakistan at the international stage. Often, we have seen global leaders expressing their frustration and concern over the balance of power in Pakistan. Almost no country in the world, except for China, understands the real power centre of Pakistan that is the military. From deciding who the prime-time news anchor of a news channel should be to who the prime minister should be, the military is the ultimate decision-making body in Pakistan. A democracy of only label, Pakistan throughout history has always been an advanced military dictatorship with excellent art of indirect control.
The military is also the Chief Terrorising Force of the country. Getting the crown of the most frightening institution in a country clogged to its mouth with terrorist organisations is a serious deal. And Pakistan’s armed forces have, unremittingly, been at its best in furthering its agenda of violence and destruction. Specialised in terrorising its own people, the Pakistan military has a history of mass human rights violations and genocides. Pakistan’s military is the mind flayer behind every terrorist outfit and its each terror Demogorgon. But surprisingly the ‘upside-down realm’ of this mind flayer is not beneath the earth but right up on the surface of the same country it belongs to.
Pakistan, in its all senses, had accused India of majoritarianism on repeated occasions. Being true to its founding father’s fear-mongering populistic doctrine, Pakistan has repeatedly shot its attempt at brushing India as a majoritarian state. When in reality, India has repeatedly proven itself, over the centuries, to be the most tolerant nation and India’s majority has proven itself as the most cosmopolitan one. Being in the realm of realism and true to history, it is the state of Pakistan which has always been majoritarian. The ethnic Punjabi majoritarianism over Pashtuns, Balochs and Sindhis; the sectarian Sunni majoritarianism over minority Shia and Ahmadiyas; ultimate the religious Islamic majoritarianism over extreme minority Hindu, Sikh and Christian religions; are a testimony to the fact. Whenever Pakistan accuses India of majoritarianism or discrimination against minorities, it defies the moral and ethical laws of the world order.
Despite so many, by default, defects in the system of Pakistan, undoubtedly the biggest one is terrorism. Home to dozens of terrorist organisations and hundreds of UN-designated terrorists, a safe haven to all kinds – sectarian, religious and ethnic – of extremism, Pakistan is a serious threat to the world peace and integrity. Always stuck in the dream of invading India, Pakistan has for years relied on waging a proxy war against India through its most reliable force – terrorists. Terrorists are state fostered aggressive force created, trained and provided with all essentials in Pakistan for waging an asymmetrical religious war against India. There is hardly any nation in the world which does not concur with the fact that Pakistan is a terror state. Creating trouble in Kashmir through its force of terrorists and shedding crocodile tears at India’s counter aggression is an unsurprisingly common sight that we have seen multiple times over the years. Expecting the world to respect Pakistan, when it has consistently fostered terrorism at every possible place it could, is like expecting the water to burn for you.
The force behind free fall of Pakistani significance and value at the international stage are the embedded hypocrisy; deliberately induced human rights violations; its addiction to fundamentalism and religious, sectarian and ethnic majoritarianism; freedom suppression, censorship and authoritarianism; military dictatorship and reliance on and usage of cross border terrorism. The fact that Pakistan and its PM accuses India of all these shows its schizophrenic behaviour and attitude, with which no one would love to deal with. The reason behind this repulsion of world towards Pakistan is – unambiguously – the paranoia of Pakistan.
