Daily Times

It is flabbergasting to witness the waves of anger coming from every corner of Pakistan’s society and polity after the United Arab Emirates conferred its highest civil award on Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. People in Pakistan and in some other parts of the world are criticising the UAE for its ‘dishonest’ move of awarding Modi with the medal at the time when he is involved in the ethnic cleansing of Kashmiris, and executing his plans and policies of ‘de-Muslim-ising’. They are accusing the UAE of endorsing New Delhi’s manifesto of treating Kashmir as its colony; they have started to label the UAE as a Modi ally.

I wonder why our nation is so irrational when it comes to analysing global relations. In the twenty-first century when the world has turned into a global village, shrewd states are pursuing their diplomatic relations with other states in order to uphold their national interests. It is unfortunate that Pakistan has always pursued a policy of putting her own burden of failure on the shoulder of other states. Pakistan has, without any hyperbole, performed poor in the fields of diplomacy and building trust-based relationships with a globalised world. Before commenting on the current malicious approach of the fascist India and Pakistan’s failure of diplomacy to stop the clampdown of Kashmir, it is imperative to highlight some failed, major foreign policy expeditions of Pakistan.

Since its birth, the boat of Pakistan’s foreign policy is wandering in the deep ocean without a captain, altering its directions with the intensities of choppy waters. To justify that, successive governments and politicians with their own vested interests or bonds with the usurpers have not pleaded the case of Kashmir in the manner it should have been done. When Zia-ul-Haq made the unilateral decision to help America expel soviet forces from Afghanistan was when the issue of Kashmir could have been easily resolved through America’s diplomatic assistance. However, our visionless leadership that destroyed the social fabric of our society by making the decision to participate in the Afghan War in 1979 did nothing for Kashmir.

The aftermath of the Afghan War could have been made less bad if General Zia-ul-Haq had dealt with the situation with wisdom. At that time, the USA had no other option but to fulfil every demand Pakistan had put on the table. General Zia-ul-Haq, however, took the decision to accept financial aid and certain investments. He could have asked the USA to help permanently resolve the Kashmir issue in return of Pakistan’s assistance to Washington in Afghanistan. But the myopic decision of Zia took the entire country to a threshold of destruction. Militancy, terrorism, drugs and human trafficking, and the Kalashnikov culture are the vicious evils that stemmed from the 1979 era. This is one of the biggest failures of diplomacy.

The aftermath of 9/11 changed the fate of the South Asian region. In order to punish the perpetrators of the attack, the USA decided to launch the War Against Terror. America had to seek Pakistan’s assistance in order to make the war successful. Like his predecessor, General Pervez Musharraf, at the expense of Pakistan’s betterment, made Pakistan a front line state in war against terror in Afghanistan and Pakistan. A few billion dollars were given and military support was extended. Musharraf could have asked the Bush administration to resolve the long-standing Kashmir issue to grant independence to Kashmiris who have been fighting for many decades. That episode also ended badly, tearing the vary structure of our society.

If Pakistan really wishes to have any influence with the UAE, it must have cordial relations with the UAE on the basis of trade, diplomatic connections and FDIs

Our democratic leaders have also had no interest to improve any diplomatic channel; they instead became corrupt and looted the national treasury. Nawaz Sharif despite having good relations with Narendra Modi had no interest to resolve the Kashmir issue through personal diplomacy for the greater interest of the country.

Pakistan’s poor performance in diplomatic channels has ruined SAARC, resulting in making India more influential on the world stage. Pakistan was unsuccessful to convince the other six members of SAARC to attend the conference in Pakistan, which reduced Pakistan’s credibility in the comity of nations. More worryingly, Pakistan being the only nuclear Muslim state has no say in the OIC, which despite Pakistan’s refusal and agitation invited Sushma Sawraj to an OIC formal meeting.

All these developments signal the inefficiency of our diplomatic institutions to carry out prompt and efficacious foreign policy to achieve desired goals. And now when Modi has successfully won the diplomatic war by getting a medal from the UAE despite criticism from many corners of the world, Pakistani leadership is hiding its own failure by turning public attention towards Modi’s atrocities, which are of course undeniable. The Arab world is doing 100-billion dollar trade with India annually. Why has Pakistan failed to understand that international relations are derived through rational interests and not by emotional and ideological linkages?

If Pakistan really wishes to have any influence with the UAE, it must have cordial relations with the UAE on the basis of trade, diplomatic connections and FDIs. Then, perhaps the UAE would listen to Pakistan’s criticism about giving a medal to Modi, and why the UAE do not oppose his fascist approach towards Kashmir. To expect the UAE to adopt a harsh stance against India on the basis of brotherhood of the Muslim ummah is merely wishful thinking.

The writer is a columnist, historian and international political and security analyst