Daily Times

The unchanging geopolitical realities, every dynamic international security situation and (especially) current circumstances in the South Asia behooves us (Pakistan) to give Kashmir issue top priority – and thankfully we are doing that. The recent statement by Pakistan’s Foreign Minister, Shah Mahmood Qureshi, concerning the establishment of an alternative Muslim bloc to deal with the Kashmir issue – in the face of Saudi opposition to raising it within the OIC – is certainly historic.

Not for the past half century has Islamabad issued any statement even remotely close to as ‘confrontational’ as this one. There are of course a variety of factors at play, which have led to the culmination of the audacity of the current Pakistani government to be so publicly explicit and candid with the House of Saud.

Prime Minister Imran Khan’s incredibly vocal and relentless pursuit of justice for Kashmiris in the face of Indian annexation and ongoing settler-colonial brutality in the region (driven by BJP’s Nazi ideology) – and the House of Saud’s immediate blessing of India’s inhumane action is one such factor. The humiliation that the Prime Minister personally felt when MBS vomited all potential threats to Imran and to Pakistan to prevent him from attending the KL Summit proved to be a good lesson of what kind of a ‘friend’ MBS is to him (and to Pakistan).

Fortunately, the Pakistani leadership has the choice to be more independent and affirm its own dignity in deepening its integration and cooperation with other Islamic countries such as Turkey, Iran, Qatar, and Malaysia, as well as with other nations from the Global South

Simultaneously, there are larger geopolitical tectonic shifts taking place, albeit gradually, that are increasingly enabling Islamabad to commit to affirming its sovereignty, autonomy, and to a process of deepening decolonization.

Certain changes in international political economic arena has provided Pakistan with a position where interests and future plans of world’s two most formidable superpowers, both U.S. and China, is completely dependent on it. The US, in its typical transactional and opportunistic way for its withdrawal from Afghanistan and China for its maritime trade routes and cutting exposure from U.S. aircraft carriers patrolling the Malacca Straits.

In addition, it is becoming clear that there is something remarkably different about the current political dispensation in Pakistan itself with both the civilian and military leaderships on the same page about much of the foreign policy and national security objectives of Pakistan at this critical historical juncture.

Islamabad no longer seems to be handicapped by either the old Cold War framework or the ‘War on Terror’ era that kept Pakistan subordinated and entrapped within the needs of Washington.

The Pakistani historian Ayesha Jalal has a predilection to highlight issues of self and sovereignty in post-colonial states such as Pakistan. Now is the right time to reimagine an Islamicate reconstruction embodied in the Pakistani polity.

And crucially, Muslims throughout the world as well as the millions upon millions in the Global South and Global North who have been in solidarity with the Palestinians, the Kashmiris, and others being oppressed, cannot ignore the contradictions by countries like House of Saud, UAE and Egypt. They have not only refrained from calling out these crimes against humanities that Israel and India are perpetrating but on the contrary have bestowed awards (to Modi) on them and/or legalizing the atrocities (by recognizing Israel in its post 1948 form).

As we underscore, this is no easy or small geopolitical maneuvering taking place. It may very well take some time. But the signs are there. The effective enslavement of Islamabad to Riyadh due to economic matters may one day see its pleasant end when Pakistan’s leadership starts taking more trips to Doha than to Riyadh.

It’s a choice that Islamabad needs to make. Having disentangled itself from various humiliating forms of subordination to outside powers, it seems pretty clear that this dynamic of subordination has one remaining irritant left for Pakistanis: that of the House of Saud.

Fortunately, the Pakistani leadership has the choice to be more independent and affirm its own dignity in deepening its integration and cooperation with other Islamic countries such as Turkey, Iran, Qatar, and Malaysia, as well as with other nations from the Global South. That seems to be the only way forward to deepening decolonization for a real, meaningful independence.

Zooming out we can see a trend of shifting alliances in the world, especially in the Eastern hemisphere. China is leading a bloc joined by Russia, Iran. Turkey and Malaysia are mobilizing too and it will not be a surprise if they try to jump in as well. Pakistan in such a situation finds itself in a very favorable position both in a geopolitical and economic manner. If addressed well, this is yet another critical juncture for us to take advantage of.

Dr Junaid Director of the Center for Muslim World Studies and Professor of Religion and Global Politics in Islamabad. Osama Rizvi Economic and Geopolitical Analyst; Global Oil Market Analyst