Less geography, more politics: The dilemma of Pakistan’s foreign policy

Former diplomats at KLF’s session on geo-politics talked about the country’s troubled present and bleak future.

KARACHI:

“Afghanistan is what Pakistan has been all about for the last 35 years,” former ambassador Hussain Haroon aptly pointed out while talking about the foreign policy dilemma of Islamabad during a panel discussion at Karachi Literature Festival. Whether it was at American or Russian largesse, Pakistan has been “enchanted” by its Western neighbour for three decades, he said.

Before him, Pakistan’s former high commissioner to India Ashraf Jehangir Qazi said, “Everything in Pakistan begins with ABC but ends at GHQ.”

Meanwhile, Zafar Hilaly, another former diplomat, harangued the Taliban and chided “us muddle-headed Muslims who were trying to get our heads around them.”

The panel discussion was titled “Geo-political Equation: Pakistan in the World” but it was clearly about politics. Pakistan’s political history, the bemused and apathetic political leadership, and regional politics dominated the discourse.

The session was almost like the dramatic reading of Op-Ed columns – they were all former diplomats after all. Hilaly actually read his speech. “It appears that I am reading because I am,” he quipped as he started his talk.



Unfortunately, the panelists were not a diverse group, they all had an almost identical view of the world, Pakistan’s military, and the Taliban.

But they differed on India. Hilaly insisted that India was the bane of Pakistan’s existence. And the anti-India sentiment mollified as one moved left on the panel – Qazi was less India-obsessed, and Haroon did not talk of India much, but concentrated on Pakistan and its internal problems.

Haroon was the only one who touched upon geo-politics, saying, “Anything that deals with the weaknesses of the nation will define your geo-political equation.” A strong country would never worry about its geo-political situation because they could only strengthen it, he added.

As Pakistan was weak and didn’t have much standing in the world, it pivoted to the Middle East in the 1970s, then its policy was dominated by Afghanistan in the next couple of decades, and then “we became the Chinese knife in India’s side”.

On the other hand, Qazi blamed the political leadership for refusing to do anything despite “knowing the truth and being very comfortable with it.” “It is we who have to realise the truth and with that we can realise our potential and do something about our problems,” he said. What is Pakistan’s future was the favourite question of the afternoon session, to which Hilaly replied, “I’m no soothsayer, I cannot say if Pakistan will survive or not.” He warned though that the future appears infinitely more threatening than the situation today.

“Let me choose to misquote Shakespeare,” said Haroon dramatically, “For Pakistan, to be or not to be, that is the question!” This caused a member of the audience to exclaim, “Wah!” as if Haroon had recited a couplet.

In the question-and-answer session, another former diplomat Najmuddin Shaikh said Pakistan should reject conspiracy theories as the world has genuine concerns, which can be turned into sympathy if Pakistan fixes its internal problems. “If we fix our internal matters, we will automatically fix our external problems.”

Hilaly responded, “I am dying to agree with you but I can’t! They will never let you fix your problems until their agenda sets in.” For a moment, it seemed like he was referring to the military. But he said, “India will never stop interfering and will not leave you alone.”

The same audience member cried out, “Very good, very good! Wah!”

Published in The Express Tribune, February 8^th, 2014.