SCO Summit: fire for hawks, olive branch for doves

It will not be prudent to not see Mr Bilawal Bhutto Zardari’s visit to India for the 2023 SCO summit in the light of the legacy he will carry with him for this visit. The young Pakistani foreign minister also represents a political party and political family that has believed and propagated engagement, talks and deliberations as an ideology. From Zulfikar Ali Bhutto to Benazir Bhutto, the art of negotiations, open door policy and discussions have reaped major successes for them as statespersons individually and for Pakistan in general. Such a policy has become a guiding tool for any foreign policy framework of Pakistan. The young Mr Bhutto carries that belief in his veins and his armory.

Shanghai Cooperation Organisation represents a multilateral platform that hosts key players at the global as well as the regional level. The SCO is a platform that stands as a voice against terrorism, extremism and separation and both Pakistan and India can use the forum to discuss these matters of mutual concern and create a new chapter towards a much needed and largely evasive dialogue. Both Pakistan and India accuse each other of fostering cross-border terrorism and supporting separatist groups. In this regard, SCO summits provide Pakistan and India with opportunities to proceed with counterterrorism and intelligence sharing dialogues as per the specified guidelines of SCO counterterrorism mechanism. This summit has the potential to ignite a potential basis for dialogue between the two South Asian rivals.

Historically it was the SCO summit back in 2015, where the Indian PM Modi and Pakistani PM Nawaz Sharif met informally and created a foundation for resumption of dialogue and a working mechanism to talk between the two countries. The current SCO summit has a somewhat similar potential after last year’s SCO summit and the ones before that were wasted as an opportunity by Pakistan and India.

One of the reasons many are focusing and talking about a possible Indo-Pak dialogue is because the impact of this transcends local or regional levels and has a global significance. The two nuclear states potentially represent almost 25% of the world’s population. They represent a vibrant market of a billion plus population that has a plethora of issues gazing at it on a daily basis. From environment to education. From health to food. From water to housing. The issues are of giant proportions and have made lives of the suffering and marginalised millions a daunting daily experience. In the light of such major concerns, any idea of resumption of talks or engagement between the two countries brings hope to millions across the region. It has a major impact on the economy, politics and society of both the South Asian giants.

However, with hope comes despair too. Pakistan and specially India has been a major case study of intolerant politics, nightmare for minorities and fascism. India has been on a genocide watch and now thousands of non-Hindus and liberals are fleeing the country for more moderate countries and healthy social environments. Dubai alone grated 80K golden visas to Indians in 2022 alone. Indian Muslims and Indian Christians are now top applicants for foreign passports and PR cards abroad. All of this due to the ruling BJP’s Hindutva policy of destroying anything remotely secular in the country.

In Pakistan too till last year the Imran Khan-led government became a pinnacle of hostility towards dissenting voices and Pakistan’s ranking towards free media and journalism hit an all-time low. Imran’s PTI clamped down on all political rivals and the country’s foreign and domestic policies were seen as incomplete, poor and short sighted. The previous government’s pandering to the right wing politics became a hallmark for hawkish politics in the country.

In the light of the above facts what the region at large needed was a sane, moderate and far-sighted leader. It was the need of the hour for a Zulfikar Ali Bhutto type statesman to lead the region towards a more enlightened and a progressive future. In the midst of war-mongering hawks in India and Pakistan, only Bilawal Bhutto Zaradri fits that role of a peace loving dove in the region. He is the perfect voice to be heard in the SCO summit in India this year. He is the kind of mindset that needs to lead Pakistan’s efforts to normalise and cool down temperatures and push forward a new era of stability and harmony in the region. While he can only represent Pakistan today, he may get to positively influence the frenzied Indian media and the right wing bigot brigade of Indian politicians. His charm, intelligence, poise and potency may resemble that of his charismatic grandfather and brilliant mother, but his own personality has the vibrancy that may be able to shake the seemingly rigid and hardcore India’s ruling regime.

From water issues to cricket, everything and anything has been held hostage due to this animosity between the two countries. Added to that hatred, prejudice, fake news and misrepresentation of facts has not helped anything or anyone in the region. It has perhaps only helped right wing politicians win elections and that too in India only as anti-India tirade has little to no takers in Pakistan.

Perhaps it is time not just for Pakistan but for India too to listen to a secular and calm voice of reason, empathy and logic. This is the educated interjection and trajectory that will bode well for the success of the SCO summit and for any little hope of resumption of basic normality between Pakistan and India. Bilawal Bhutto as a dove will present an olive branch to all those who are hostile and alien to an educated and mature approach towards resolving bilateral issues. This precisely is what is needed today. Good luck to you, sir!

Published in The Express Tribune, May 5^th, 2023.

Like Opinion & Editorial on Facebook, follow @ETOpEd on Twitter to receive all updates on all our daily pieces.