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
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: 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
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 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 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.
Mubrik Haider
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