By JK Verma
New Delhi. 05 August 2016. Not only Indo-Pak relations but world view of Pakistan took a drubbing when Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif wishfully thought loud that he was waiting for the day all of Kashmir will join Pakistan. Statements which are rhetoric for votes and eyeballs also seem to be the ones which boost the elected government of Pakistan in the eye of its Army and ISI. Are India and Kashmir the only cards which Nawaz Sharif has for his sustainability? Isn’t is high time for Pakistan to realize that this is becoming detrimental for its regional and international reputation?
India centric policies and assistance to several terrorist outfits by Pakistani Army, which is the defacto ruler, has isolated the country. Army which enjoys several privileges under the pretext of danger of annihilation from its eastern neighbor has marginalized its relations with other countries including fellow Muslim countries like Afghanistan and Iran. It’s relations with all its neighbors except China are thorny.
Pakistani rulers give undue attention to its eastern border in comparison to its western border although residents of both sides of the border are Pashtuns and more or less there is unrestricted movement on the border. Pakistan and Afghanistan have close religious, cultural, linguistic and ethnic relations but Pakistan instead of developing these affirmative indicators, wanted to control Afghanistan to achieve “strategic depth”. The bilateral trade between both the countries is approximately USD 3 billion. India on the other hand assisted Afghanistan in its economic development and completed several projects while few are under development. Modi visited Afghanistan twice in recent past and inaugurated developmental projects which strengthened India-Afghanistan relations.
Dwelling into history Pakistan’s blatant aggression in 1999 in Kargil when India as well as civilian government of Pakistan were trying to inculcate cordial relations, had damaged the reputation of the country which was already at rock bottom. Again when present Nawaz government arguabely wanted to develop friendly relations with India, military controlled Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) trained terrorists attacked Air Force station at Pathankot. The sinister intelligence agency ISI arrested an innocent Indian businessman Kulbhushan Jadev and alleged that he was an Indian agent and was assisting secessionist movement in Baluchistan.
Pakistani military as well as ISI trusted only the fundamentalist/extremist elements in furtherance of their foreign policy. In Afghanistan they assisted Taliban, Haqqani network as well as other terrorist outfits to carry out terrorist activities and created hurdles in the economic development of the country. ISI created numerous terrorist groups including Lashkar-e-Toiba, Jamaat-Ud-Dawa (JUD), Indian Mujahedeen, Brigade 313, Harkat-Ul-Jihad-al-Islami, Harkat-Ul- Mujahedeen, Jaish-e-Mohammed and others to carry out terrorist activities in India.
Wahabi dominated and foreign aided Madrassas in Pakistan produced Sunni extremists and they killed Shias in the country and also carried out terrorist activities in Iran. In this way Pakistan trained terrorists are responsible for terrorist activities in India, Afghanistan and Iran. Not only this terrorist nabbed or killed in various parts of the world including Saudi Arabia and in Western countries had some links with Pakistan. Few of them were of Pakistani origin while some of them were trained by Pakistanis.
Recently India, Iran and Afghanistan have signed an agreement on Chabahar seaport in Iran. Under the agreement a trade corridor would link Afghanistan to Chabahar which would not only enhance trade between all the three nations, it would also open a window to Central Asian countries as well as to Europe. The agreement is a threat to the significance of China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). Pakistan which suspects all moves of India reacted sharply on Chabahar agreement and not only closed Torkham border but also put restrictions on Pakistan-Afghanistan borders. Pakistan which incessantly alleges that India uses its diplomatic missions in Afghanistan to help secessionist movements in Pakistan is wary of strengthening Indian relations with Afghanistan
Pakistan’s opposition to US assisted Indian effort to become member of 48 countries Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSC) also went against it, as mainstream members genuinely felt that in view of India’s record of non-proliferation, India deserved the membership while Pakistan’s proliferation record is quite dismal hence its claim had no merit. Besides the closeness between Modi and Obama, US had also interest in selling six nuclear power plants to India.
USA which provides liberal financial assistance to Pakistan also realized that Pakistan is not honestly working against terrorism, killing of several terrorists in Pakistan through Drone attacks including Mullah Akhtar Mansour strengthens US argument. US intelligence agencies collected conclusive evidences of Pakistan’s assistance to several terror outfits especially Haqqani group which attacks US and Afghan forces in Afghanistan. The US public felt cheated when Al Qaeda Chief Osma Bin Laden was caught and killed by US troops in Abbottabad. The US public feels that Pakistan is assisting terrorists hence no financial assistance should be given to the rogue country. Therefore USA is also abandoning Pakistan.
China the only close ally of Pakistan is also hesitant in investing USD 46 billion on China-Pakistan Economic Corridor as it wants Pakistani government to eradicate terrorism from the area and restore peace in Baluchistan.
According to reports Hafiz Saeed leader of Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jamaat-ud-Dawa, who is responsible of numerous terrorist attacks in India including 2008 Mumbai attack also became in-charge of powerful terrorist outfit Islamic State (IS) of Afghanistan chapter. Afghan government requested its counterpart in Pakistan to take action against Saeed who was previously linked with Al Qaeda and has a reward of USD 10 million but he is roaming freely in Pakistan and the present government is afraid of taking any action against this proclaimed offender.
Pakistani army has weakened the civilian government with ulterior motive and took over foreign policy towards several important countries like India, Afghanistan, Iran, Saudi Arabia, USA just to name few. General Raheel Sharif who is not conversant with diplomacy forced Afghan President to visit Army Headquarters to discuss Pakistan- Afghanistan policy. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani though visited Army Headquarters but not liked it.
The world is changing very fast and Pakistan must stop the policy of low intensity war against neighbors and should inculcate friendly relations not only with China but all the countries especially in its neighborhood. The policy of sponsoring terrorism would be harmful and would further isolate Pakistan.
According to a rough estimate more than 40000 madrassas are operating in Pakistan and several of them are involved in producing hard core terrorists including suicide bombers. These madrassas indoctrinate children in extremism and hatred towards democracy and democratic countries. India, USA and Israel are projected as infidels and enemy of Islam. Pakistan government must regulate these Madrassas and technical and scientific education should be included in the curriculum so that these religious institutions produce work force instead of terrorists.
The leaders like Hafiz Muhammad Saeed who generate a hostile atmosphere against neighboring countries and Western world must be punished. Pakistani rulers who created these terror outfits for short term gain are now unable to control them. It is also isolating Pakistan in international arena.
(Jai Kumar Verma is a Delhi-based strategic analyst and a retired R&AW officer. The views in the article are solely the author’s. He can be contacted at editor.adu@gmail.com)
