Daily Times

Your house catches fire. You must be rescued immediately. You have neighbours all around your place but you have been at loggerheads with all of them. Miles away, you have a couple of friends. By the time you may get some help from them, the fire would have already reduced everything to ashes. However, you could have been rescued immediately, had you been on friendly terms with your neighbours. All of them would have seen the fire with the first billow of smoke and rushed to your rescue.

This precisely is the dilemma of our foreign policy i.e. we antagonise neighbours who can be most useful in our hour of need and fawn over good-for-nothing ‘brothers’. Ironically, this has been the mainstay of our foreign policy since day one. Russia (the then USSR) was the first state to invite us after our emergence as a sovereign state in 1947. It was in our region but we spurned its hand of friendship and befriended the US instead. The US is one of the most-hated countries in our society. Pick up any newspaper and you will come across statements that follow:

The US is the worst enemy of Islam. The US is the biggest terrorist in the world. America is after our nuclear program. Uncle Sam’s agenda is to disintegrate Pakistan. The US would never let the Muslim ummah unite. It is fanning sectarianism in the Muslim world. After Iraq and Syria, the US will target Pakistan. The US is behind rapid promotion of obscenity and nudity in Pakistan. The US has always stabbed Pakistan in the back. Israel is the adopted child of the US. The United Nations is a slave to the US. The US has a notorious history of toppling regimes around the world. The US claims to be the champion of democracy but the truth is, it is the biggest supporter of dictatorship in the Gulf region and the Third World. Amrika ka jo yaar hay, ghaddar hay ghaddar hay (Those who befriend America are traitors). Aaj Roos toot-tay dekha hay, kal Amrika toot-tay dekhain gay (Today, we witnessed USSR’s disintegration. Tomorrow, it will be America’s turn). US is the most irresponsible and untrusted nuclear power because it is used atomic bombs against Japan, killing millions of innocent people.

The jihadis are the blue-eyed boys and strategic assets of our establishment (mainly the Army) that makes Pakistan’s foreign policy. Interestingly, these right-wing elements are also among the detractors of the US. The establishment takes pride in presenting Pakistan as an important ally of the US in its war on terror, but its protégés keep demonising the US in their rallies and statements and articles in the press. However, the establishment has also realised that the US is never a ‘friend-in-need’. Former military dictator Ayub Khan’s disappointment with the US showed in his autobiography, ‘Friends Not Masters’. Still, all his successors including civilian leaders have kept on hobnobbing with the US. The joke is still popular in the country: Pakistan is run by three A’s — Allah, Army and America!

During the last 70 years, we have failed to learn the simplest principle of policymaking i.e. common sense. When the Iranian president Hassan Rouhani was visiting Pakistan in May last year, the director general of Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) lieutenant general, Asim Bajwa, tweeted that the army chief, Raheel Sharif, had apprised Mr Rouhani that the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) of Indian military was found to be using Iranian soil on occasions in furthering its designs to create unrest in Pakistan, especially in Balochistan.The tweet said that Sharif had sought Iranian influence over India to stop these activities so that Pakistan could maintain stability in its territory.

We had put our foot in our mouth with this tweet. It instantly destroyed the goodwill between the two neighbors and Rouhani made a mockery of us — though subtly — by denying the claims made in the tweet, at a press conference later held in Islamabad. His words were: “Whenever Iran comes closer to Pakistan, such rumors are spread!” The world makes fun of Donald Trump for running America through tweets. It should credit Bajwa for setting a precedent the Trump seems to have picked on!

Iran is a powerful player in the region. Pakistan has a sizable Shia population. The country has been run by prime ministers like Z A Bhutto and Benazir Bhutto who came from a Shia background. The country’s founder was a Shia too. We are fortunate that Iran is our neighbor. We should be building brotherly ties with it so that we could see through the completion of the 2,775 km long Peace Pipeline. Instead, we are sowing hostility with Iran. The other day, Iran formally voiced its fears over the appointment of the former army chief, Raheel Sharif, as the head of the Saudi-led 39-nation Islamic Military Alliance. Iran minced no words in saying that it was not satisfied with the coalition.

Our naiveté is mind-boggling. Our national security adviser, retired lieutenant general Nasser Janjua, said the other day (Jung, April 8) that Saudi Arabia included Pakistan in the alliance without consulting it. Is our foreign policy in the hands of those who are blessed with the gift of common sense? We don’t know against whom the Saudis have cobbled up this alliance. During his ongoing visit, Imam-e-Kaba Sheikh Abdul Rahman Al-Sudais has said that the alliance will take out the eyes of the enemies of Islam. Was he referring to India that is committing the worst atrocities against the innocent Kashmiri Muslims or the Israelis who have butchered thousands of innocent Palestinians? We don’t know anything about the Saudis’ vision of ‘terrorism’. We don’t know whom the Saudis treat as enemies of Islam. Is the alliance for a ghost enemy?

Moreover, can the Imam enlighten us about the extent to which the Saudi rulers follow the spirit of Islam? For instance, King Salman was in Indonesia last month with a convoy of 1,000 people, including princess and ministers.They travelled with 500 tonnes of luggage, including four limousines and eleven electric escalators. Did Prophet Mohammad (peace be upon him) or any of his companions set examples of such an extravagant lifestyle? Modesty and humanity are the two fundamental messages of Islam which are, today, followed by the kafir countries.

The writer is a freelance journalist and researcher based in Islamabad. Yamankalyan@gmail.com