Daily Times

This year’s theme for the 77th session of the General Assembly —A watershed moment: transformative solutions to interlocking challenges— seem appropriate and befitting. The water not only shed in bulk but also wreaked mayhem across the globe while depositing agony, hunger and homelessness in leftovers. Some of the other key topics i.e. the war in Ukraine, ending the COVID-19 pandemic, and a special Transforming Education Summit stand no chance against the looming global issues of climate change and food insecurity; not even the issue of energy crisis outstrips the immensity of the devastation the recent stint of flood incurred on the terrains of Pakistan—submerging a major portion of it beneath the vicious-floating liquid.

This 77th UNGA meeting is being held in the shadow of extreme weather events ravaging several parts of the world while scouring the dubious forecasting stamped by climate pundits who failed to put impending dangers into their real timelines. From the scriptural floods in Pakistan to devastating droughts in Europe and China, no one knew the rebuttal of nature would come to settle the score this quick. No wonder if this year’s speeches shall be delivered with pretty upsetting tunes, ever so slightly infused with grief and anticipation of more climate-change-wrath loading, close at hand. If I say that the recent environmental issues brought the world to the edge of sure-shot devastation, probably I’m having a point!

While you’d be flipping through these lines, the key themes would have been taken into deliberation at the high-level General Debate, which started on Tuesday, 20 September 2022. More than one hundred and fifty heads of state and government would have arrived at UN headquarters in New York State to attend this two-week do-gooder festival, which originally commenced on Tuesday, 20 September 2022.

According to top US prints, UNGA meetings are turning out to be a repeat of spineless events, soulless speeches and mere rhetorical gimmicks

The Prime Minister of Pakistan, Shehbaz Sharif, will have his entourage— a dozen federal ministers, including Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, and officials— on their toes for the preparation of a ‘shortcoming’, I beg your pardon, forthcoming speech to be delivered on September 23, 2022. This make-or-break speech bears many connotations in terms of his fading reign, the overdue payback to his people and dwindling political reputation to say the least.

With a packed diplomatic week comprising bilateral, plurilateral, and multilateral meetings, the test begins for the incumbents. This time around, the Pakistani contingent has been zoomed with close surveillance for a reason, and they must sense the kill. Not only shall they be looking to recount their plight in front of the world’s audience through this illustrious podium, but also shall look up to steer the best and most sustainable networks with world leaders. Meeting Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Chinese counterpart Premier Li during the sessions are a few of those moments to look for!

What is Pakistan actually bidding for? Of course, we aren’t offering the rest of the world the Boston Dynamic’s marvel, SPOT robots, or an Islamic tech valley to outsmart Silicon Valley. We’re only going to shed light on the sufferings of more than 33 million countrymen in the wake of flash floods induced by climate change, and this is where I’m having chills in my spine. By all means, PM Shahbaz Sharif’s speech shall be examined, analogized and compared with former PM Imran Khan’s 2019 UNGA speech. If we’re not getting a birthday surprise on 23rd September 2022—Mr Sharif’s Birthday falls on the same day—and managing to garner global support in all essence, Pakistan Muslim League (N)’s political spirit might resurrect out of scratch. If I’m not being off-keyed, the latter has secured some gas-supply deals with Russia lately. If the infrastructure gets laid down, the extensions of ‘Brotherhood’, ‘TANAP’ or ‘SCP’ pipelines could hit Pakistani terrains sooner than later.

But here’s another story making rounds among netizens!

Recently Jimmy Falon—having 50M+ Twitter Fans— took a dig at Mr Sharif when the 72-year-old failed to fix his headphones during his meeting with Putin. Against the backdrop of recent floods in Pakistan, Mr Falon’s pickings fetched a serious backlash, yet it caught millions of eyeballs for Mr Sharif, who would have gone unnoticed otherwise at UNGA for some viewers. In exact words of an illustrious paper voting out Mr Falon’s idiotic stint: “At a time when Hollywood is turning its attention to Pakistan floods and Angelina Jolie is planning to fly down to extend support, American talk show host Jimmy Fallon found it “too funny” when Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif fumbled with a headset at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Samarkand.”

Come what may, it has worked for Mr Sharif. The global matrix of popularity is a funny ball game and it has certainly worked well for former Prime Minister Imran Khan Altogether. At the 74th Session of the UNGA (September 2019), the latter’s powerful case put up for Kashmiris resonated with the global chords and many Indians overheard them in UNGA corridors—from the horses’ mouth. Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif needs a similar show, if not better than this. His smorgasbord of agenda does hold Kashmir issue; he just needs to sit around over a cup of nice coffee cappuccino, cram the bullet points as much as he could, and make sure there must not be any birthday surprise for 230 million people back home.

It is being bruited out that India and Pakistan could offer each other an olive branch provided they agree to the solution to the Kashmir dispute in accordance with the United Nations Security Council’s (UNSC) historic resolutions.

Coming back to PM Shahbaz Sharif’s speech, let me be very clear, it’s not about a leader’s eloquent and verbose speeches “winning matches”, but it is certainly about an impact of a forerunner imparting on a global audience, and it matters. If you have a bone to pick with me, think back to the winning speeches of past leaders who stole the show on speech day. Somehow the impact factor of a good presenter stays rooted in the successful outcome.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will not attend the UNGA, most likely, and External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Shankar will represent India in his absence. So Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif would have an edge, as he wouldn’t be hanging around guessing how to not drop his headphones in front of rivals.

According to the watchdogs, the vigour of UNGA meetings is withering over time, as the world has started falling far behind in efforts to meet the 17 U.N. sustainable development goals (SDGs), agreed to by all governments in 2015. It’s perhaps because the priorities are not set and addressed. According to top US prints, UNGA meetings are turning out to be a repeat of spineless events, soulless speeches and mere rhetorical gimmicks, including the fully remote 2020 UNGA – which turned into a 30-hour video call nightmare. One print goes: “Accessing UNGA doesn’t cost $50,000 a person – as the World Economic Forum does – and New York shopping is better for dictators’ wives.”

In the exact words of Richard Gowan, a U.N. process expert who heads the International Crisis Group’s U.N. office: “the leaders don’t listen to each others’ speeches – and they address their remarks to domestic audiences. “Once POTUS leaves, you have presidents and prime ministers speaking to the diplomatic equivalent of two men and a dog.”

Hopefully, we’d have our case otherwise, wish you the best of luck Mr Sharif!

The writer is a research-based analyst from Islamabad. He can be reached at: mbilal.isbpk|@gmail.com.