Daily Times

In corporate sector it is known as the “seth (tycoon) culture.” The seth/owner sets up a business, does everything himself, expands it, puts family members in management positions, and makes all the decisions himself until the business retrenches and finishes. This is the classic case study of how to make a good venture bad. The principles of management clearly state that if you try to control everything you will end up controlling nothing. The present state of no state in the country is very similar to the phenomenon of the seth culture. The prime minister has gone on medical leave, that too for a serious surgery, that too out of the country, and by all indications will be absent for four to six weeks. However, hours before his surgery he approved the budget sitting in London through a video-link, and weeks after his surgery, his trusted man of all skills, Ishaq Dar keeps rushing to London to brief him on affairs of the country. Meanwhile, Pakistan has been made to look like a lame duck by its neighbouring countries, and is politically dismissed by an over-active “rival”, Narendra Modi in the global policy sphere.

Government can run a training programme on “how to convert your friends into enemies.” International relations and regional relations are key in a world that is embroiled in a huge conflict, is in addition looking towards South Asia as the pivot of economic push in the world. A few years ago it was India that was branded as the “mischief-monger” in the region with its issues with Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, China and Sri Lanka. Today, it is Pakistan that has conflicts with Bangladesh, Iran and Afghanistan. Traditionally, it has been lack of friendship between India and the US that has been one of the highlights of the regional dynamic, but today, it is the reverse with Modi becoming the centre of attraction in the American Congress. This situation has posed serious security challenges to Pakistan, and should have been priority number one of the country. Since the prime minister is also the foreign minister the foreign policy is also in convalescence in London.

Meanwhile, Modi is on a wooing-friends-and-enemies-and-the-enemy-of-enemies tour. Bangladesh and Iran are glaring examples of the neighbourhood-engagement diplomacy exercised by India. The Land Boundary Agreement — as big a dispute between the two countries as the Line of Control in Pakistan-India relations and that no previous leader including the 400-seat majority government of Rajiv Gandhi could get ratified from parliament — has now been approved. This settlement has brought the two countries closer, politically and economically.

Similarly, Iran has huge interest in development of Chabahar. India grasped the opportunity of removal of sanctions on Iran to revive the Chabahar project, which has the potential of diluting the significance of not only Gwadar and China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) but also Pakistan’s geographical advantage. Iran gets to become the transit hub for Central Asia and Afghanistan as the new regional hub. Afghanistan gets a share of the trade route as bonus.

India has made very shrewd and innovative moves to countries that have traditionally not been big players in South Asian geopolitics — Japan and the Gulf States. Modi vigorously pursued Japan, and included it as a party to US/India Malabar maritime exercises. Three meetings on various global events in three weeks inspired Shinzo Abe to visit India for three days, resulting in deepening bilateral ties that would yield huge political and economic dividend.

Modi’s another new diplomatic favourite is the Gulf States. Seizing on Saudi and Gulf displeasure with Pakistan over its stance on Yemen, Modi has promptly visited Saudi Arabia and the five Gulf States including Qatar. Negotiations with these countries was also very well scripted, as it was not just oil diplomacy but about security, counterterrorism and maritime issues.

On the other hand, Pakistan’s diplomatic efforts seem like a rudderless ship going round and round before drowning. Pak-Afghan relations have been difficult and fragile. Lack of trust regarding cross-border terror sponsors has been a bone of contention between the two countries. Efforts between the two countries to reduce conflict have been marred by suicide attacks that have presumably been carried out across the border. In August last year when 50 people were killed in a terrorist incident in Afghanistan, Afghans blamed the Haqqani network operating from Pakistan. Pakistan, on the other hand, has demanded action on Mullah Fazlullah hiding in Afghanistan. Indian propagandists and lobbyists in the US have used their influence to convince the US to tie up aid to Pakistan with action against the Haqqani network, and have worked on the Afghan leadership to treat the manning of Torkham border as an infiltration of Afghan sovereignty. Thus, India has found a common cause with Afghanistan and US to forge closer ties, and to create further rifts in Pakistan’s relationship with the US and Afghanistan.

Pakistan’s foreign policy does not have any direction or strategic depth. The prime minister has been very keen to develop good relations with India, and the personal but surprise visit of the Indian prime minister on Pakistan’s prime minister’s grand daughter’s wedding in Raiwind was seen by some as a great step forward to reduce tension between the two countries, and by others as following of US desire for better relations between the neighbours. However, it has not resulted in any benefit for Pakistan, very much like most of prime minister’s prolific overseas visits. According to a report presented in the National Assembly, Sharif went on 65 visits to 28 countries during his two and a half years as the head of state. The expenses of these visits are estimated at around 630.82 million rupees. Britain remained the most visited destination for the prime minister with 16 visits. Why Britain remained the most visited country and what Pakistan has achieved in terms of trade or foreign relations is a question that remains unanswered.

Therein lies the problem. There is no particular design, purpose and result of these prime ministerial visits to multiple countries because there is no strategic plan: which countries are the allies, and which are on the opposite side in key international issues. The seriousness of how we approach foreign policy is visible by the way India has approached membership in the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) in competition with Pakistan. While Modi has personally visited influential countries and made Barack Obama and John Kerry canvass for its entry in the NSG, Sartaj Aziz has been making belated calls to member countries to garner support. But then if our own government appearing in a Supreme Court case against the banning of Houbara Bustard pleas that this ban should be removed as gifting these birds to Gulf royals is the “cornerstone” of our foreign policy, that perhaps explains it all. The recent belated gift approval of four horses for Saudi and Qatari princes in an ECC meeting further confirms the intellectual bankruptcy that is eroding Pakistan’s potential to act as a major player in the geostrategic stakes of regional and global politics.

The writer is a columnist and analyst and can be reached at andleeb.abbas1@gmail.com