Wanted: Full-time foreign minister: Shireen Mazari slams govt’s weak diplomacy

PTI leader says Pakistan over-reliant on China, Gulf countries

ISLAMABAD: The government’s inability to hire a full-time foreign minister has greatly hampered its ability to project Pakistan’s concerns internationally, especially with regards to India and Kashmir.

This was stated by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Dr Shireen Mazari at a media workshop titled “Pakistan, India and Regional Alignments” organised by the Strategic Studies Institute, Islamabad (SSII).

Dr Mazari, who is a Member National Assembly (MNA) and director general of SSII, noted that our foreign office had failed to issue any statement regarding a recent meeting to decide on new members for the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG). The meeting, Dr Mazari said, had denied India a membership to the exclusive group, with the 48-members of NSG debating on setting a criteria-based approach to granting memberships.

“The government has been unable to pursue any effective diplomacy, relying solely on China to support Pakistan’s case [in NSG],” she lamented.



On the issue of Kashmir, Dr Mazari said India had cleverly pushed back on issues such as human rights violations and use of pellet guns.

“In the aftermath of the Uri attack and the issue of surgical strikes, the focus shifted away from human rights violations in Kashmir not only within Pakistan but also globally,” she reminded.

Commenting on the thorny subject of jurisdictions within the complex civil-military gamut, Dr Mazari said that the military is only able to influence subjects such as foreign policy because the political government leaves a vacuum.

“With the victory of Donald Trump as the new president-elect of the US, world seems worried owing to his extremist stance on some critical issues such as immigration policy, racism, nuclear programme of Iran etc,” she said adding there seemed to be a global wave of ultra-rightists ascending to power around the world.

Dr Mazari argued that the only new thing was a greater acceptance of this existing discourse and it has become kosher to discuss hatred in public.

On Pakistan’s relations with Arab states, Dr Mazari said that Pakistan relies on them with the assumption that in times of trouble, Gulf and Arab states would come to its rescue.

However, she pointed out that Pakistan has been unable to develop relations with Iran, an immediate neighbour with which a long border is shared.

“Due to US pressure, we have been unable to hasten the passage of the Iran gas pipeline,” Dr Mazari said, suggesting that Islamabad should explore options to improve ties with Tehran.

“CPEC has provided an opportunity where Chahbahar and Gwadar port could complement each other.”

Talking about Afghanistan, Dr Mazari said that Pakistan’s policy had failed since India was using Afghanistan to destabilise Pakistan through Balochistan.

“It presents Pakistan with a two-front threat to deal with.”

She criticised the government for pursuing a personalised foreign policy and blamed the government’s inaction on important issues on the absence of a full time foreign minister.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 19^th, 2016.