Will Pakistan ever stop operating the UNGA platform?

Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif spoke at the UN General Assembly (UNGA) on September 27. As expected, his speech focused on just two issues: Palestine and Kashmir. He shouted hoarsely about Pakistan’s two adversaries, neither of whom he can touch: Israel and India.

It was an expression of frustration and desperation as he had no solution for dealing with either. He tried to make it clear that both were wrong and had similar policies.

Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz raged: “Like the people of Palestine, the people of Jammu and Kashmir have fought for their freedom and right to self-determination for a century. Instead of moving towards peace, India has reneged on its commitments to implement UN Security Council resolutions.”

Pakistan has even greater fears as demands from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir for a merger with India grow. India’s refusal to even consider reintroducing Article 370, Pakistan’s fundamental demand to resume dialogue, has panicked Islamabad. What has further hurt Pakistan is the continued threat of cross-border retaliation, including recapturing PoK with military force in case Islamabad continues to sponsor terrorism.

The Eclipse of Pakistan

Stammering and unable to read his text, the Pakistani Prime Minister’s entire speech was about India and Israel, without any mention of Islamabad’s contribution to the world, to development or to its own people.

There is also not much to say about a country whose prime minister is a figurehead, elected by the military, with no decision-making authority. Nor could he speak about democracy, as it is being suppressed in his own country by the imprisonment of its most popular leader, Imran Khan, on trumped-up charges. He was afraid to mention the ongoing elections in J&K as the world is aware that they are free and fair while those in Pakistan are rigged.

Nor could Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz argue that the Shimla Agreement and the Lahore Declaration have made any global agency or third-party mediation redundant in the territorial disputes between the Indo-Pak countries. It is bilateral and will remain so. That is why no country, including any of Pakistan’s allies, ever offers to mediate.

Nor could the Pakistani Prime Minister mention Baluchistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), where genocide is underway and the local population is disappearing and their bodies mysteriously emerging a few years later, riddled with bullets.

Every family in Baluchistan and KP has missing members and protests over their whereabouts are suppressed with brutal violence. The mere mention of Baluchistan on the world stage creates a sense of panic in Islamabad.

Nor could he complain about the Taliban who raised his country to eventually support the TTP (Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan), which is gaining ground in the KP by the day. As Minister of Foreign Affairs Dr. S. Jaishankar said, “The world cannot be blamed; this is only karma.”

The Pakistani Prime Minister was afraid to mention drugs from Afghanistan as he was aware that it is the country’s military that is behind the trafficking through Karachi. Nor could he mention that every West Asian country has told Pakistan not to send its beggars to them.

While talking about the supremacist agenda of the Hindus, he failed to mention that minorities in his country are forcibly converted, murdered and even graves of minority Ahmadiyyas are desecrated almost on a daily basis. The nation that never respects other religions speaks of Islamophobia.

Pakistan’s evasion

Shehbaz Sharif also failed to mention that the country is experiencing uncontrollable inflation and unemployment, with public anger only increasing due to financial misdeeds and large-scale corruption. Nor could he argue that Pakistan is so deeply in debt that if the IMF delays loans, the country could collapse. He also failed to assert that Pakistan is a proxy state of China and is willing to carry out its will.

All India needed was a young diplomat to tear apart the facade of the Pakistani Prime Minister and show the world that Pakistan is just spreading a bunch of lies. India’s First Secretary to the UN, Bhavika Mangalanandan, reacted strongly and made it clear to the world what kind of nation Pakistan is. She said: “A country ruled by the military, with a global reputation for terrorism, drug trafficking and transnational crime, has had the audacity to attack the world’s largest democracy.”

She added: “Yet we must make it clear how unacceptable his words are to all of us. We know that Pakistan will try to fight the truth with more lies. Repetition will not change anything. Our position is clear and needs no repetition. No deal can be made with terrorism.” She reiterated that Al Qaeda founder and feared terrorist Osama bin Laden was a respected guest in the country.

Indian representatives rarely referred to Pakistan in their speeches to the UNGA. This time, however, it had to be summoned. Dr. Speaking at the UNGA, Jaishankar said, “Pakistan’s cross-border terrorism policy will never succeed. And there can be no impunity. On the contrary, actions will certainly have consequences. The issue to be resolved between us now is only the release of illegally occupied Indian territory by Pakistan. And of course abandoning Pakistan’s long-standing attachment to terrorism.”

Conclusion

It was a warning that India will neither accept mediation nor resume dialogue unless Pakistan stops terrorism altogether. It is clear that India has outgrown Pakistan and gone far ahead because it is just a pinprick, while for Pakistan India is an arch-enemy, the mere mention of which causes panic within their leadership.

India is also the nation that Pakistan wants to be, but can never become. What India is today is no longer a dream for Pakistan. The country can only find solace in crying falsely about India and Kashmir on the world stage, while hiding its own shortcomings and misdeeds.

***The writer is a commentator on security and strategic affairs; The views expressed here are his own