Against Modi, Pakistan stands united under Imran Khan

“Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power,” thus spoke Abraham Lincoln. Imran Khan has battled against adversity throughout his life but only now is his character being tested by the most fleeting of mistresses: power. Imran’s first real crisis has burst out of nowhere with the Pulwama attack and it’s only unmasking the strength of his character. We take this for granted but Imran Khan could have used this situation, like Modi, to distract from his government’s performance. Instead, Imran is showing us the difference between a statesman and a politician.

Of course, India is dramatically overplaying its hand in this crisis like a B grade Bollywood film. Any loss of human life is and should be condemned. It should also be investigated transparently and the root causes addressed to ensure it never happens again. However, before the blood of their soldiers had dried, India had already blamed Pakistan for the attack. If Indian intelligence agencies are so quick on their feet to find ‘irrefutable evidence’ linking the attack to Pakistan within minutes, why didn’t they just stop the attack in the first place?

Where are the communication intercepts between folks in Pakistan and the attacker, who had been humiliated by the Indian occupation forces in Kashmir and carried this burden on his heart? How did hundreds of kilogrammes of explosives make their way from Pakistan, under the eyes of the ever-vigilant Indian intelligence agencies, who can solve international terror incidents within minutes? India’s case against Pakistan is weaker than the American case on WMDs in Iraq.

An organisation based in Pakistan has claimed responsibility for the attack. India bases its allegation on this but overlooks the fact that the said organisation is banned in Pakistan. Pakistan should go after extremist elements and eliminate them once and for all. No sacred cows. No funny business. It would be helpful if India shares the actionable evidence that Imran Khan has asked for. Meanwhile, India needs to stop braying for the blood of a nation of 200 million people.

Prime Minister Imran Khan argued in his speech that this is Naya Pakistan and we want a reset of our ties with India. But the Indians rolled their eyes. They say past behaviour is the best predictor for future actions. Let’s study Imran Khan’s relationship with violence. Imran Khan built the first modern day political party in Pakistan without a militant wing, even in a city as violent as Karachi and where his own party workers have been butchered. The man doesn’t have a violent bone in his body. He had been calling for talks with the Taliban, a decade before the Americans arrived at the same conclusion. He is for peace. He is a dove, the Pashtun dove.

It is said if you put two Pakistanis in a room and force them to come with a consensus view on an issue, they’ll emerge from the room with three different points of view. This is what makes our unity against Modi’s jingoism particularly exceptional. We take Pakistani unity on our India policy for granted. Imran Khan is offering an olive branch in the face of ridiculous war mongering from India and the nation stands fully united behind him. This, more than anything else, should give hawks in India a pause.

This is a once-in-a-generation moment to make a historic peace deal. Let us not spill any more Indian or Pakistani blood — both of us bleed the same colour. Peace between Pakistan and India, two nuclear powers, is an inevitability of history. The only question is how much blood we will spill on our way to achieving peace.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 24^th, 2019.

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