Nobel Laureate Pakistani activist Malala Yousafzai had more bilateral meetings than Pakistan’s elected Prime Minster at the side lines of 72nd United Nations General Assembly session. Malala had more diversification in terms of discussions and meetings than her Prime Minister. Exchanging views with Hollywood and Bollywood actors to world leaders and rights activists, Malala has benefited our diplomatic mission more than the government itself. Our leadership annually visits the UN in September but from their engagements they do not seem like a global forum. Every Prime Minster has its limited engagements in term of meeting world leaders. Pakistan enjoys good relations with some states and only those leaders are seen meeting our leadership. Picking up a schedule of the Prime Minster of Pakistan every September won’t show us anything new in their engagements. This year, the US President was not even in the meeting list of PM Abbasi and he got US Vice President Mike Pence, lowering our diplomatic engagements with a crucial partner. Our leadership has limited its meetings to the Chinese, British, Turkish, some European countries, Arab states and couple of regional states. Moreover, the agenda is always limited to discussing the security environment, and the Pakistani leaderships international schedule ends there. All of Africa, Latin America, Asia Pacific, Australia, Eastern Europe, Caribbean States and now even Western Europe are off the radar of the Pakistani foreign office. The American educated Prime Minister of Pakistan did not prove to be different in terms of his diplomatic engagements despite having international exposure. Pakistan’s diplomatic lens needs to move away from security as the world is realigning itself and regional and international agendas are shifting Our neighbour, India’s Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj had tremendous bilateral, trilateral and multilateral engagements with international dignitaries and entrepreneurs. She even met with Muslim world leaders of the Arab world whom the Pakistani Prime Minster and his delegation ignored. Her meetings and the way she was engaging with the international leadership showed her country’s regional and international ambitions and India’s rising stature at a global stage. The world is taking India seriously not because of its rising political and security stature but its mammoth population which is a market for everyone. Despite having abdominal poverty, India is making global footprints because of its booming market and proactive foreign policy. The Indian Foreign Minister met with world leaders and urged them for support counter terrorism even though, India is the largest human rights violator. Their media is an extension of the government in terms of pursing foreign policy goals whereas ours is busy grilling the ruling party. They have a sizeable middle class and a huge population speaks English which lets the international audience know what’s happening in India. In Pakistan, we do not have a single English private channel so the international audience actually does not know what’s happening and the international media portrays our image in a compromise manner. Pakistan’s diplomatic lens needs to move away from security as the world is realigning itself and regional and international agendas are shifting. Our diplomatic posture should be global as debates are also shifting. The content of PM Abbasi’s speech was not global in nature but very traditional. Do we actually know how the debate on global warming is taking place and what should we need demand from the world and multilateral forums in terms of raising our infrastructure regarding renewable energy? Since we did not implement universal development goals, the world has now reached Sustainable Development Goals. Importantly, where is Pakistan on South-South cooperation, China is an active member in boosting South-South cooperation but we haven’t investigated how to use global institutions in the south to counter western institutional hegemony. Pakistan should have been leading a debate regarding terrorism at a global stage because of the losses we have faced and the economic price we have paid which is around $120 billion. Instead, India is leading this debate. Despite loses and huge sacrifices we have failed to sell our story of victimhood. The nation needs to think deeply about it rather than just use traditional rhetoric. We may have to lose elements with whom we have been playing as it’s not a loss of anyone or someone’s ego but of 207 million people who keep hopes in their leadership. We need to assert our case and we can only do so if we move away from the existing narrative on terrorism. We need to open up to the world on this or else our sacrifices would go in vain. We are living in digital age and states are fighting their wars in the digital landscape by using the tools of digital diplomacy. Pakistan does not have effective tools of digital diplomacy. Our foreign office spokesperson is followed by just more than hundred thousand people where as there is no account of Pakistan’s foreign minister officially. PM Abbasi’s speech in the United Nations was not given any extra ordinary response by our electronic and print media whereas the Indian media fought for the Indian government’s case and against Pakistan as well. Our leadership needs to be innovative by meeting entrepreneurs. Years of diplomatic experience must help Pakistan in improving its image. Why doesn’t our leadership does meet administrations of Google, Facebook, Amazon, Twitter, YouTube and many other multinational corporations. At the same time Hollywood actors should be invited to meet to make them aware about Pakistan. Our leadership must move beyond the security paradigm and open up to the world in every sphere. The writer is a Strategic and Political analyst. He teaches international politics in NUML Islamabad Published in Daily Times, September 27th 2017.