Nisar objects to president’s ‘shrine diplomacy’
Someone must tell Hina Rabbani Khar that there come moments in politics where you have to be firm and unapologetic.
Since the selection of Hina Rabbani Khar as foreign minister of Pakistan, I have really been feeling good about the soft image that she kept projecting about her person and the country. She disappointed me to some extent, however, with her defensive tone and apologetic spinning while speaking in the joint parliamentary sitting Thursday evening. Someone must tell her that it always pays to act decent and polite, but there come moments in politics where you have to be firm and unapologetic.
There was no need for her to defensively tell the opposition leader that President Zardari had only conveyed the desire to visit the shrine of Khawaja Moeenuddin Chishti in Ajmer Sharif. Doing this, he did not seek any official appointment by any means. New Delhi was rather told clearly that his would remain a “private/personal visit.” It was the Indian Prime Minister who communicated the desire of hosting lunch for him at his official residence in New Delhi before the President proceeded to Ajmer on April 8. Islamabad had to say yes to it for obvious reasons. After all, “we live in South Asia where the tradition of inviting foreign visitors for meals remains very strong”.
Ms Khar was forced to spin a long tale of ‘cultural compulsions’ by Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan. At the outset of the joint parliamentary sitting, he took the floor to wonder through a point of order as to why Asif Ali Zardari had decided to visit India, a country which he recalled was even not willing to let its cricket and hockey teams play in Pakistan. Even if he felt the need to coalesce before the shrine of Chishti, why go with a ‘heavy entourage of 40’.
Being a ‘public representative,’ Nisar knew it too well that he could not afford sounding as if opposing Zardari’s visit to a shrine in our saint-adoring society. Little wonder, he preferred to focus more on finding out ‘the agenda’ that the Pakistan President would presumably be discussing with the Indian Prime Minister. Repeatedly drumming the fiction of a uniquely sovereign parliament that Pakistan seems to be having these days, Nisar kept demanding that Zardari must explain ‘the agenda’ that he wanted to discuss with Manmohan Singh to ‘public representatives.’ After all, they are now empowered to set guidelines for Pakistani diplomats to pursue. In deference to their newfound empowerment even the most powerful countries of NATO have been anxiously waiting for parliamentary approval to re-opening of Pakistani routes for supplies to their troops in Afghanistan.
I do wonder as to why Ms Khar failed to tell Chaudhry Nisar that not one but two successive military dictators of Pakistan – Zia and Musharraf – had been often found virtually gate-crashing when it came to visiting India in the name of cricket diplomacy. Nawaz Sharif never did that with Indians for sure. But he also imposed a meeting on President Clinton to bail out his generals from being trapped at the heights of Kargil on July 4, 1999.
Informal contacts are equally important in diplomacy. At times, they also lead to historic breakthroughs. China began opening up to the USA via ‘ping-pong diplomacy’. Our presidents in khaki tried doing the same with India through ‘cricket diplomacy.’ Why object to Asif Ali Zardari’s forthcoming visit to India, if it gets something substantive in the end?
Ms Khar could rather have tried to sell the same by naming it as ‘shrine diplomacy,’ for example. You never know if Zardari’s going to Ajmer inspires Manmohan Singh to express a desire to visit the Sikh holy places in Pakistan and this eventually would help lead the ordinary mortals in both India and Pakistan to visit each other under less cumbersome visa regime.
Nisar is no stranger to delicate sides of diplomacy. General Zia would depute him as the minister-in-waiting, whenever the “red capitalist” owner of Occidental Oil, Armand Hammer would visit Pakistan from 1986 to 1988. To provide facilitating content to recent agreements of relatively free trade between India and Pakistan, a package of providing some relief in visa regime, had already been finalized after long meetings between the bureaucrats of the two countries notorious for their inflexibility even when faced with changing ground realities.
After reading the fine print of it, I strongly believe that the proposed package would only facilitate big business. Small and mid-level business persons might not get any benefits out of it. Most traders of this category remain diehard voters and supporters of Chaudhry Nisar’s party, the PML-N. Instead of subverting the already scheduled luncheon meeting between the President of Pakistan and the Indian Prime Minister, he should rather have asked Zardari to employ all his charms to win more concession for small traders of his country while trading with India.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 6th, 2012.
There was no need for her to defensively tell the opposition leader that President Zardari had only conveyed the desire to visit the shrine of Khawaja Moeenuddin Chishti in Ajmer Sharif. Doing this, he did not seek any official appointment by any means. New Delhi was rather told clearly that his would remain a “private/personal visit.” It was the Indian Prime Minister who communicated the desire of hosting lunch for him at his official residence in New Delhi before the President proceeded to Ajmer on April 8. Islamabad had to say yes to it for obvious reasons. After all, “we live in South Asia where the tradition of inviting foreign visitors for meals remains very strong”.
Ms Khar was forced to spin a long tale of ‘cultural compulsions’ by Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan. At the outset of the joint parliamentary sitting, he took the floor to wonder through a point of order as to why Asif Ali Zardari had decided to visit India, a country which he recalled was even not willing to let its cricket and hockey teams play in Pakistan. Even if he felt the need to coalesce before the shrine of Chishti, why go with a ‘heavy entourage of 40’.
Being a ‘public representative,’ Nisar knew it too well that he could not afford sounding as if opposing Zardari’s visit to a shrine in our saint-adoring society. Little wonder, he preferred to focus more on finding out ‘the agenda’ that the Pakistan President would presumably be discussing with the Indian Prime Minister. Repeatedly drumming the fiction of a uniquely sovereign parliament that Pakistan seems to be having these days, Nisar kept demanding that Zardari must explain ‘the agenda’ that he wanted to discuss with Manmohan Singh to ‘public representatives.’ After all, they are now empowered to set guidelines for Pakistani diplomats to pursue. In deference to their newfound empowerment even the most powerful countries of NATO have been anxiously waiting for parliamentary approval to re-opening of Pakistani routes for supplies to their troops in Afghanistan.
I do wonder as to why Ms Khar failed to tell Chaudhry Nisar that not one but two successive military dictators of Pakistan – Zia and Musharraf – had been often found virtually gate-crashing when it came to visiting India in the name of cricket diplomacy. Nawaz Sharif never did that with Indians for sure. But he also imposed a meeting on President Clinton to bail out his generals from being trapped at the heights of Kargil on July 4, 1999.
Informal contacts are equally important in diplomacy. At times, they also lead to historic breakthroughs. China began opening up to the USA via ‘ping-pong diplomacy’. Our presidents in khaki tried doing the same with India through ‘cricket diplomacy.’ Why object to Asif Ali Zardari’s forthcoming visit to India, if it gets something substantive in the end?
Ms Khar could rather have tried to sell the same by naming it as ‘shrine diplomacy,’ for example. You never know if Zardari’s going to Ajmer inspires Manmohan Singh to express a desire to visit the Sikh holy places in Pakistan and this eventually would help lead the ordinary mortals in both India and Pakistan to visit each other under less cumbersome visa regime.
Nisar is no stranger to delicate sides of diplomacy. General Zia would depute him as the minister-in-waiting, whenever the “red capitalist” owner of Occidental Oil, Armand Hammer would visit Pakistan from 1986 to 1988. To provide facilitating content to recent agreements of relatively free trade between India and Pakistan, a package of providing some relief in visa regime, had already been finalized after long meetings between the bureaucrats of the two countries notorious for their inflexibility even when faced with changing ground realities.
After reading the fine print of it, I strongly believe that the proposed package would only facilitate big business. Small and mid-level business persons might not get any benefits out of it. Most traders of this category remain diehard voters and supporters of Chaudhry Nisar’s party, the PML-N. Instead of subverting the already scheduled luncheon meeting between the President of Pakistan and the Indian Prime Minister, he should rather have asked Zardari to employ all his charms to win more concession for small traders of his country while trading with India.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 6th, 2012.