YesHulam Ali what a ruckus Here’s a way to recount last weekend’s India vs Pakistan saga. All fighting and not talking “with each other” is the order of the day. While enjoying the desi courtroom drama for the past several weeks, we Pakistanis have never had to worry about what happens across our border. Taking a day off from judicial soaps and coming back with more Ruckus Or commotion.
In the last one week, we were warned that Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari was not going to India but to Goa, which happens only in India. got it. And he is attending the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit and Shanghai is in China. That was enough geography lessons for the whole year. Don’t get your hopes up, that was the sign. Now Zardari returned from India or from Goa? This is a question we hope to answer when the Prime Minister of Pakistan attends the SCO summit in New Delhi, which happens only in India.
Luckily for us, we now have self-proclaimed experts in body language and gesture reading, along with “highly placed sources.” If the biggest scoop was that “sources witnessed a handshake” between the foreign ministers of India and Pakistan, both S Jaishankar and Zardari were seated at the same dinner table, surely devastating news for those of us , who thought our ministers would order room service at their fancy Goa hotels.
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Shireen Mazari shared her immense knowledge about Zardari. Greetings! There was appeasement for his Indian counterpart. And for some reason she also knew that Jaishankar was not interested in shaking hands. By that clarification, all the SCO foreign ministers were saying Namaste and cheering India. Pakistan’s former Information and Broadcasting Minister Fawad Chaudhry also condemned the visit, saying that the visit reflects the intention of the government. Dear For Modi. Former Prime Minister Imran Khan called the Foreign Minister dumb Because he went to India. He is also quoting verses from Quran to criticize Jaishankar prideThis is the same Foreign Minister on whose statements of buying oil from Russia Khan was playing jalsa (rallies).
big mess of decades
Ironically, everyone is invested in it, like the coronation of King Charles III, for a journey with promised zero expectations or movement on the bilateral front. You will find supporters cheering as if their leader Zardari has won them the proverbial Cricket World Cup. you will find tajziakar (Analyst) Those who were predicting an Indian attack on Pakistan very soon and wanted the External Affairs Minister to skip the SCO meeting, are now basking in the glory of a “successful India visit”. You will also find the opposition accusing Zardari of bringing shame to the country after the Indian foreign minister called him a “promoter, enforcer and spokesperson of terrorism”.
The term ‘cross-border terrorism’ has stuck around for decades in every bilateral and multilateral meeting involving India and Pakistan. When asked why the Agra Summit 2001 failed, the then External Affairs Minister of India Sushma Swaraj said in a memorable interview on Pakistan television: “When you [Musharraf] If you want to mention Kashmir as the ‘core issue’ and want no mention of ‘cross-border terrorism’ in the agreed statement, it will not work. Now 22 years later, Pakistan only finds mention of ‘cross-border terrorism’, while being reminded that the ‘core issue’ is a thing of the past. Jaishankar said in the press conference, “They have nothing to do with Kashmir. They should talk about when they will vacate the illegally occupied areas of J&K.
If history is our teacher, then those who have tried to have their way with India have been rebuked like former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. Pakistan’s India policy or rather its entire foreign policy has civilian politicians as its face but they neither make it nor do they have any influence on it. After all, the bigger mess of waging jihad in Kashmir through proxies like Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) or Jaish-e-Mohammed (JEM) and the debacle of strategic depth in Afghanistan are now the brainchild of Pakistan’s military leaders. over decades.
Even today those who have the power to make or break diplomatic relations are actually talking to India from behind the scenes. They have been doing this since 2019 with the alleged mediation of Arab countries. As Pakistan’s former foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi explained in 2021, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) chief’s regular meetings with his Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW) counterpart were not formal talks, “I wouldn’t call it formal Back channel but India-Pakistan are discussing the situation with each other from time to time.
Before it all started, former army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa was warning how Kashmir was sold out. Apparently he was convincing people in Pakistan that friendship with India is necessary. ,no petrol in our tank, We don’t have petrol in our tanks to fight India Said A group of journalists. He indicated that Pakistan’s financial woes are such that good relations with India are now important.
While bigwigs play the game of real talk, politicians do what they have to do- score points on India with nationalistic rhetoric and try to sell Kashmir powder, They “try to win praise”how kashmir competes with pash kya (How the Kashmir issue was presented),” the Muqadma For decades every Pakistani leader has appealed to the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) at the United Nations. Did it help in liberating Kashmir? Threat to India if caught G-20 meeting in Kashmir withWhen the time comes, I will answer in such a way that I will remember (When the time comes, we will respond in such a way that they will always remember it” is simply childish. Also, the notion that all G20 attendees will not show up is laughable, as a G20 brother country scouting for Saudi Arabia Used to be. Investment in Kashmir. While Dubai’s Emaar Group is investing $60 million to build a shopping and office complex in Srinagar.
Today, after Saudi Arabia improved its relations with Iran, Israel opened direct flights to Saudi Arabia for Hajj. But India and Pakistan can’t talk, can’t reopen trade that would help common Pakistanis. It’s easy to label your political opponents like Modi here ka yaar, gadar ( Modi’s friend, unfaithful) or in the press people say “Modi butcher of Gujarat”. For now, let’s try to find the successful outcomes of Zardari’s visit to India. Because when the new sun rises, Pakistan will still be looking for that IMF bailout and we will decide between costly ladyfinger Or Lentils (Okra or Lentils).
The writer is a freelance journalist from Pakistan. His Twitter handle is @nalainayat. Thoughts are personal.
(Edited by Ratan Priya)