When Pakistan will learn lesson?

When Pakistan will learn lesson?

Maha Media 17 August 2019 

A rare close door meeting of UN Security Council (UNSC) was held at Washington on Friday and Pakistan’s attempt to corner India over Jammu & Kashmir issue fell flat once again as no members, except China, reportedly felt the need to intervene in India’s internal affairs. Russia, France and the UK reportedly supported India’s position. Russia’s UN representative described it as a bilateral issue between India and Pakistan where the UN has no role to play.

For the last two weeks, Indian has been maintaining  that revoking of Jammu and Kashmir's special status was ‘entirely an internal matter’ with ‘no external ramifications’  and firmly told Pakistan that it has to stop terrorism to start talks.

While it was clear that China and Pakistan stood isolated at the highest diplomatic forum of the world, Pakistan’s ambassador to the UN Maleeha Lodhi tried to change the optics, saying the very fact the UNSC discussed J&K was “testimony to the fact that this is an internationally recognised dispute”.   Pak PM Imran Khan and his diplomats had been trying to garner support from various countries to make J&K an international issue, but their all efforts were failed. 

Though, the outcome of the Friday’s UNSC meeting was not announced through a statement as the consultations were informal. Neither India nor Pakistan attended the meeting, which was open to the five permanent and 10 non-permanent members. 

Ever since the Article 370 and Article 35A were revoked, a kind of frustration is being witnessed among Pakistani leadership as well as diplomats. They have been responding India’s initiative towards J&K with shock and bewilderment.  Even, Pakistan National Assembly went into a frenzy, with parliamentarians hurling abuse at Prime Minister Imran Khan; who, in exasperation, asked his colleagues: “What do you want me to do? Attack India?”  Surely, this reflects a height of frustration in Pak’s leadership.

The world knows that for the past 30 years, the Pakistani armed forces have used the instrument of jihad as state policy in the Kashmir Valley by backing street demonstrations and by sending highly-motivated militants.

However, having kept India under pressure for at least three decades, Pakistan now finds itself in a difficulty. The “surgical strike” of September 2016 and the Balakot air attacks by India in February this year have made it clear that a terrorist attack from across the border will meet with firm retaliation and could escalate into a full-scale war.

Pakistani thinkers now fear that if there is now any violence in Kashmir, Pakistan will be blamed and there could be a sharp Indian response.  Due to its established affiliation with extremist, Pakistan has little credibility. The world’s major nations are distracted by other concerns — the Gulf crisis, Brexit, Ukraine, the Sino-US trade war, North Korea. This has meant that no country has come forward to give Pakistan the backing that it so desperately seeks. Big question is that will Pakistan learn lesson?

 For Maha Media

Prabhakar Purandare