Hassan Aslam Shad
Pakistan continues to remain at the receiving end of a ‘coercive’ global campaign aimed at jettisoning its geo-strategic and geo-political ambitions. Almost three years into Prime Minister Imran Khan’s government, like the proverbial Greek character Sisyphus, Pakistan has been relegated to the fate of endlessly rolling a boulder up an incline, only to see it fall back on its own weight.
Consider this: Pakistan has been jockeying for global support to exit the FATF gray list for the past two and a half years. No doubt the blame partly lies on Pakistan for failing to act fast to comply with FATF requirements. But if the benchmarks are indeed money laundering and terrorist financing (the two main allegations against Pakistan), then there are jurisdictions far more non-compliant than Pakistan who have been let off the hook. Something else must, therefore, explain the country’s ‘special treatment’ by world powers.
Lawfare and coercive diplomacy are pointedly directed at Pakistan. The idea is to ‘tame’ Pakistan and browbeat it into submission through an unending international wish list. The endgame is to torpedo Pakistan’s forward momentum. It is only by toeing the line of Western powers that Pakistan can expect some let up in the pressure.
With the latest global perception being that Pakistan is firmly placed in China’s orbit, expectedly the pressure will only pile further on Pakistan. It is therefore no surprise that both China and Pakistan continue to be treated rather similarly – although, to its credit, China has been able to firmly hold its ground due to its strategic, military, and economic prowess.
China is subject to a sinister global campaign that alleges it is engaged in a Uighur genocide. While Western media generously doles out allegations of ‘genocide’ against China, evidence offered is anecdotal and spurious at best. Never mind that international law prescribes very stringent requirements for establishing the commission of the crime of ‘genocide’. Clearly, these requirements can be brushed under the rug when Western hubris dictates pointing all guns at China.
Pakistan too continues to be hamstrung in several ways. The country’s attempts to prick global conscience about Indian intransigence in Kashmir has fallen on deaf ears. Repeat US statements that India and Pakistan must mutually resolve their differences through bilateral discussions is a polite way of telling Pakistan that Kashmiri lives don’t matter. Pakistan, whose Covid management has resulted in miniscule infections and deaths compared with India, nevertheless finds itself placed on the ignominious Covid travel ban imposed by Western countries. All this belies reason and logic. Moreover, when journalists like Hamid Mir who have an axe to grind against the state spew venom against its armed forces, Western media loses no time in painting Pakistan as a dystopian state. But when Muslims in neighboring India fall victim to Hindutva fascism, the world conveniently chooses to look the other way. These double standards are stark and aren’t going unnoticed in Pakistan’s policy circles.
Another retrogressive lawfare taking behind closed doors these days is in relation to the US exit from Afghanistan. Although the Pakistani government has unequivocally denied giving any
airbases to the US for operations in Afghanistan, it would be naïve to expect the Americans to accept this sitting down. They will use all sorts of leverage to ‘arm twist’ Pakistan.
Crucially, these headwinds (Afghanistan, FATF, US-India nexus) have brought Pakistan to a fork in the road. Not only are these events already testing and will further test Pakistan grit, but they have also brought into the limelight where the country’s leadership possibly sees the country in 5 or 10 years from now. Pakistan’s refusal to kowtow to the US suggests that Pakistan’s new decision matrix is one in which the country will not trade-off ‘today’ for an uncertain ‘tomorrow’ in return for some temporary economic respite. For a pleasant change, Pakistan has decided to put its own interests before all else.
Pakistan’s leadership has also realized that certain global perception about Pakistan won’t change, appeasement of the West notwithstanding. With this reality having become starker with every passing day, expect Pakistan to firmly hold its ground amidst coercive attempts to cast it as a pariah and to cajole it into doing the US’s bidding. It would not be remiss to say that today’s hard choices made by Pakistan, despite all the nerve wrecking international pressures it faces, reflect a moment of strategic reset for Pakistan. The country’s leadership seems to have decided that it is better to go through a trial by fire today if doing so will usher in a brighter and more promising future for the coming generations. It is in times like these that nations are made. Pakistan’s time seems to have finally arrived.
Hassan Aslam Shad is an international lawyer based in the Middle East and a graduate of Harvard Law School, U.S.A. He can be reached at: veritas@post.harvard.edu
