Where is our sovereignty?

This past week was a busy one with important dignitaries visiting Pakistan. The question to ask is whether or not the ministry of foreign affairs made the best of these opportunities. Let’s examine the Indian visit. No sane foreign policy analyst was expecting a breakthrough but certainly after many Track II visits and prior meetings between the foreign secretaries, it was not an unnatural expectation that some level of understanding would be achieved by this high-profile visit.

It is unreasonable to suggest that the media always blows such matters out of proportion. It only reflects national expectations. After so many preparatory meetings some forward movement, however small, was a reasonable expectation.

So our foreign minister failed us. His undiplomatic banter the following day helped divert attention from Kashmir to how many phone calls the Indian foreign minister made or not made to New Delhi. Similarly, the Indian delegation failed its people as well. And I say this because there is no doubt that the people of both countries wish to resolve their outstanding issues and live peacefully. Having said that, talks minus a composite dialogue framework are not going to produce any real forward movement.

The apologetic nature of our foreign minister’s tone on Indian interference in Balochistan/Fata, his failure to project Pakistan’s stance against Indian violations in Indian-occupied Kashmir and on the water issue was disappointing. Real leadership would have meant stating one’s position even if there is no meeting of the minds. In any case, why wasn’t emphasis placed on the fact that India is stealing our water? Was any evidence provided to the Indian delegation on this matter? Silence on this most important of water amounts to criminal negligence on the part of the government.

This brings us to the Strategic Dialogue where we are looking at US assistance to resolve our issues. We are hopefully also looking at US influence to impress upon India to not break international law by subjecting the lower riparian party to undue injustice. Instead of this what we do is we relax our own visa rules to accommodate the entry of more and more US diplomats and officials into our country.

The other remaining matter is that of the aid pledged by the Friends of Democratic Pakistan. The bulk of the pledges have yet to materialise and this makes sense because which foreign donor government would want to lend to or invest in a country widely believed to be run by corrupt people.

All these events combined lead us to the conclusion that we have lost charge of our foreign policy. It has never been this bad in the past. And unless some patriots freeze the situation as it is now and review the damage done in the last two years and then make amends, things will not get better.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 22^nd, 2010.