According to the Indian media, day-time restrictions have been relaxed in over 22 districts in Kashmir.
“Day time restrictions have been relaxed from all 105 police station jurisdictions in Kashmir. It has been done after improvement in the situation,” Dilbag Singh, DGP Jammu and Kashmir was quoted as saying by Indian news agency ANI on September 28. This statement doesn’t say that the curfew has been lifted after 55 days since August 5 when India revoked articles 370 and 35a, stripping Jammu and Kashmir of its special status as an autonomous state.
This is the sum total of gains of all the lobbying done by Pakistan and other civil society organisations.
An equally credible news agency, Reuters, however, reported on the same day that police restrictions on people’s movements have been tightened to prevent possible protests in Kashmir a day after Prime Minister Imran Khan’s speech before the United Nations General Assembly in which he warned of a bloodbath once India lifts its restrictions in Kashmir.
Cunningly, the Indian government imposed the curfew to distract the discussion from its move of unilaterally withdrawing the special status given in the Indian Constitution to Jammu and Kashmir.
Many a times, governments around the world create a worse situation after taking undemocratic measures so that the discussion is not on the measures taken by them, but instead on the human rights situation created after the undemocratic step. People of Kashmir and India are now hoping that this unilateral action by Modi would be rolled back by the Indian Supreme Court.
Prime Minister Imran Khan can claim that he, at least, got the curfew relaxed through his efforts. But the Foreign Office of Pakistan is getting strong criticism for not being able to get the endorsement of 16 countries required to present the resolution against the Kashmir human rights violations in Geneva.
The claims made by the Foreign Office that they had the support of 58 countries appear to be false. Maleeha Lodhi managed to get the discussion going on the Kashmir issue in the UN Security Council. It was said that the Security Council took up the Kashmir issue after 50 years. So much for the hard work put in by Maleeha to get the Kashmir issue back on the UNSC’s agenda despite opposition by India. Maleeha’s replacement, Munir Akram, was Musharraf’s choice at the UN and he didn’t deliver anything.
Prime Minister Imran Khan can claim that he, at least, got the curfew relaxed through his efforts. But the Foreign Office of Pakistan is getting strong criticism for not being able to get the endorsement of 16 countries required to present the resolution against the Kashmir human rights violations in Geneva
Now let’s come to analyzing the prime minister’s speech at the 74th UNGA session. Much hype was built that it would be hard-hitting against India’s atrocities, but instead of using it as the first point of his speech, he kept the Kashmir issue for the end of his speech.
The urgency of tackling the Kashmir problem upfront was lost because he emphasized on it at the end. True, that the session was dedicated by the UN to the issues of global warming.
His supporters may say in his defense that he touched on the global warming issue first because that was the topic of the day, but he also wandered away from the basic issues of Kashmir and kept it to the last after appealing to the West to help him control money laundering by the political leadership. This was a domestic issue which he highlighted at an international forum, bringing a bad name to the country.
Already we are suffering from being placed on the FATF grey list and want to come out it.
I am reminded of a very interesting anecdote from a conference held by Nawaz Sharif. Soon after Pakistan exploded its nuclear bomb, the State Bank governor made an emphatic speech that Pakistani businessmen are corrupt. Amidst a hot discussion between the businessmen and Governor Yaqoob, a Karachi businessman Wajid Jawad said, “Sir, the allegation of governor Yaqoob is like saying that I have a daughter who is corrupt and ugly, so who will marry her?”
On this, there was big laughter and the situation diffused.
Prime Minister Imran Khan’s mantra at the international forum that Pakistani businessmen and politicians are corrupt was out of place. However, he made a pertinent comment in his speech regarding the rich states only paying lip service on global warming and not doing anything to control the carbon emission.
His claim that he planted a billion trees in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa during the five years of his government is not verifiable from independent sources.
The writer is the author of What’s wrong with Pakistan?