N.P. Upadhyaya Kathmandu: Frustrations of the Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan are real.
It is simply because none of the world leaders, save a few, with whom he has talked so far on the plight of the Kashmiri people have assured PM Khan of their total commitment and made any criticisms against the Indian highhandedness that it is over the annexation of the Kashmir since August 5/19.
It is the Turkish President Erdogen only who spoke in favor of Kashmir population while making his speech at the UN general assembly session the other day.
However, reports say that Indian foreign minister expressed his serious reservations on President Erdogen’s Kashmir pronouncement in his UN Speech to which the president retorted by saying that should Turkey seek permissions from India to talk on Kashmir?
Rest of the Muslim leaders who have converged in the US to attend the ongoing UN General Assembly session so far though have ignored the Pakistani plea thoroughly but concurrently “sympathized” in private with the plight of the imprisoned eight million Muslim population since 53 days in Kashmir.
This has apparently no political significance.
“Commercial-business” relations have outweighed the humanitarian values” so says the puzzled Prime Minister Mr. Khan.
Says PM Khan that “I have come to New York especially for Kashmir. Everything else is secondary. The World doesn’t realize that we are heading for a big disaster”.
Is he referring to the triggering of the nuclear button if pushed to the wall by India?
This he said while talking to the Editorial board members of the Wall Street Journal on September 25/19.
He further added while talking with the WSJ team that “India’s repressive and illegal actions in occupied Jammu and Kashmir will not only have repercussions for the region (implied South Asian region) but for the entire Muslim world”.
Though the PM may have felt somewhat cheated by the comity of nations in his bid to convince them of the “imminent disaster”, but yet in multiple ways he has conversely been able to draw the attention of the globe by talking with the International media of the sort of Wall Street Journal.
His message has reached far and wide.
The fact is that even the US President Donald Trump appears to be in a state of confusion in that the President remains convinced by what PM Khan has talked with him on Kashmir and thus he wants to mediate, however, the moment President Trump meets PM Modi-he thinks first of business more so in selling of sophisticated weapons to India and earn billions and billions of dollars. A guess works only though.
Even if it were the reality, the US President by this time has already understood how PM Modi had “used” him and his presence in the Houston crowd for gaining “domestic” popularity.
Come 27 September, PM Khan hopes that he will shake the UN general assembly by presenting the Kashmiri issue in a vibrant manner which will, he expects, compel the world leaders to think seriously on the present state of the ongoing Kashmiri plight.
Needless to say, the Muslim leader PM Khan has been somehow or the other been ignored by his own brethren Muslim community of nations.
If Iran came to support the Kashmiris, then the UAE and the Saudis and even Malaysia have completely ignored PM Khan’s plea.
Interestingly, the Malaysian President Dr. Mahathir talked of the Rohingya Muslims at the Colombia University Wednesday but preferred not to touch the Kashmir issue.
With all these setbacks in his bag, yet PM Khan is being taken as “my dear” to the Saudis, the Iranians, and the Americans in that all these three big countries have begun looking upon PM Khan with greater belief and faith hoping that he could be the one who can bring in peace in between these three countries. And Afghanistan is already on the table.
If Iran seeks Pakistan’s help in mending its differences with the USA then equally true is the desire of the Saudis who seek Khan’s good offices to mend its Himalayan differences with Iran which reportedly had attacked some of its oil refineries and caused big damage.
Some even say that the Iranian President landed in the USA only when convinced by PM Khan that things shall change if President Rouhani were to visit the UN general Assembly.
Or is it that the Iranian leader and the US high officials have already talked with each other?
And very interestingly, the USA very much needs the active but subtle diplomatic support in reaching out a peace deal with the Afghan-Talibans which was abruptly disrupted through a tweet released by President Trump a month ago.
Let’s see this in the light of the fact that the US special envoy on Afghanistan has already met with PM Khan in New York.
Thus the Pakistan Prime Minister is placed in such a position wherein he could through the exercise of his political/diplomatic acumen bring in peace in the entire region in and around Afghanistan, Iran, and the troubled Gulf countries.
He must bring in some cards from under his sleeves on such tricky occasions for its effective use.
Nepali observers see the most clever of it all is the Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE who outwardly praise and pose to bestow honor and respect for Imran Khan but in effect it is these countries who could have helped PM Khan but have not for some mysterious reasons. However, they must have their own problems, let’s presume it to have been so.
In the issue of Jamal Khassogi killing, the Saudi Crown prince is being taken as the villain and this issue may also demand the very mediation of PM Khan at some point. The chances remain high.
But very freshly, we have learnt that Saudi Arabia has joined Pakistan on issue of Kashmiri plight and has joined few other countries who have asked India to rescind its actions revoking Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir to which we shall talk later. Much the same way President Donald Trump may have already sought the active support of PM Khan, as stated earlier, to patch up his political differences with President Rouhani and vice versa.
Our own source claims that such a request from both the Iranian and the US side have already been made to PM Khan.
Khan is yet to respond but he will not ignore their requests most likely.
It is here that PM Khan has abundant space to push his main agenda as the bargain chip. But will he present himself in that way? Perhaps his modesty will not allow him to ignore those requests coming as those which will be from Presidents of Iran and USA.
But without the US mediation, the Kashmir issue shall remain hanging for long. Thus President Trump must jump in for timely mediation for the safety of the entire South Asian region which includes the Nepali plea.
Nepal perhaps is the nation in India’s neighborhood that apparently has joined or is likely to join the Indian-protectorate club.
In the meanwhile, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) on Wednesday expressed its “deep concern” over the worsening human rights situation in Jammu and Kashmir with the Indian move to scrap its special status.
In a statement issued following a meeting of its Contact Group on Jammu and Kashmir on the sidelines of the 74th session of UN General Assembly in New York, the Muslim body reaffirmed its
stance on the dispute over the Indian-administered region, Islamuddin Sajid for the Turkish news agency Anadola writes September 25/19.
The statement, adds Sajid, “expressed grave concern that India’s actions aim to change the identity and demographic composition of the occupied Jammu and Kashmir and to transform it from a Muslim-majority state into Hindu-majority territory.”
The OIC contact group also deplored on the lockdown of the Kashmiri people, round-the-clock curfew, detention of thousand people, including Kashmiri leaders.
The OIC said the settlement of the issue is “indispensable for durable peace and stability in South Asia and beyond”, informs Sajid for the Turki news agency.
Calling on India to rescind “its actions revoking article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir , Saudi Arabia joined Pakistan, Azerbaizan, Turkey, Niger to issue a statement on behalf of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), writes Suhasini haidar from New York for the Hindu Indian daily September 26, 2019.
While PM Modi was busy in praising President Trump at the Texas rally where he even told the Indian audience to vote for President Trump in the upcoming US elections, then around the same time, Imran Khan was pretty busy in discussing the Kashmir issue in details with the Secretary General of the Amnesty International Komi Naidoo, who called on Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan on Sunday in New York.
PM Khan discussed with Naidoo the dire human rights and humanitarian situation in Indian occupied Jammu & Kashmir (IOJ&K) since India’s illegal and unilateral actions of August 5, 2019.
Prime Minister Imran Khan appreciated the lead role that Amnesty was playing in presenting the real state of human rights in the occupied territory and amplifying the voices of the Kashmiri population in a state of seven-week long lockdown. These efforts had helped raise international community’s awareness about the continuing suffering of the Kashmiri people.
Naidoo, on the other hand in response briefed PM Imran on “Amnesty’s advocacy work on Kashmir including #LetKashmirSpeak”, it has been reported.
Since the Kashmir annexation has negative impact on the overall South Asian security and political stability which is why this paper has made it a point to write against the Indian design in a repeated manner. In some way or the other, its impact could be felt in Nepal also if not the political aberrations corrected on time. Earlier the better.
By the way, the Senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad September 25/19 said the NDTV that there is no democracy in Jammu and Kashmir and people are living in fear after the Centre scrapped the state’s special status on August 5.
Mr. Azad was talking to the media as he concluded his six-day tour of the state.
“There is disappointment in Kashmir and the despair is also prevalent among the people in Jammu province. Except 100 or 200 people of the ruling party (BJP), nobody is happy (over the abrogation of Article 370 and bifurcation of the state into two Union Territories),” the former chief minister told reporters before leaving for Delhi.
Mr. Azad, who had on Tuesday arrived in Jammu on the second-leg of his tour, had said the situation in Kashmir is “very bad”.
Pakistan’s prime minister, Imran Khan, has said he has been trying to raise the alarm at the United Nations this week, Friday September 27, 2019, about the danger of a nuclear war breaking out over Kashmir, so write Julian Borger in New York and Azhar Farooq from Sri Nagar dated September 26/19 for the Guardian.
The Pakistan PM was speaking to the media in New York September 25 where he said: ‘We are heading for a potential disaster of proportions that no one here realizes.’
Julian Borger and Azhar Farooq further write quoting PM Khan that “President Trump (has) asked me and also Prince Mohammed bin Salman asked me to speak to the Iranians, and we are trying our best that this should not develop into a conflict,” Khan said.
“The good thing about President Trump is that I feel he’s not a pro-war person, although I can see that there are others who are egging him on. But his instinct, quite rightly is not for war … I think that’s very admirable.”
Here is a flash: Yoshita Singh writes Sep 26 (PTI) from the UNGA sidelines that the Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Thursday boycotted External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar’s opening statement at the meeting of the SAARC Council of Foreign Ministers, saying his country will not engage with India “until and unless” it lifts the “siege” in Kashmir.
The meeting on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly session here started in his absence.
Minister Shankar also boycotted Qureshi’s speech inside the SAARC meet.
Nepal as the current Chair of the SAARC regional body had convened the SAARC foreign ministers meet. The Pak FM appears to have only avoided Indian FM’s speech. Later he joined the Foreign Minister’s conference.
But this is just one step forward yet.
However, yet all is not lost for PM Imran Khan on Kashmir-the world class cricketer turned political personality who is leading Pakistan.
The political dividends appear to have been in the pipeline.
Many Nepali observers agree that he is a political and nuclear deterrent for the entire South Asian region. A strong Pakistan is what the smaller neighbors of fascist India needs very much for their own safety.
A time soon shall come when the Indo-pendent countries in South Asia shall weep when India will begin coercing them all under the orders of Ajit Doval and Shankar combine.
Reports have it that these two Doval-Shankar Indian stalwarts who dominate the BJP politics leaders. Modi is just working under their whims, it is widely believed.
And that PM Khan is a global player has best been recognized by a British online newspaper The Independent which says after a year of Imran Khan in power as Prime Minister, Pakistan is finally stepping into its role as a world player.
“The message to world leaders is loud and clear: In a dramatic shift from the past, Pakistan is no longer a pawn, a joke, a bystander on the world stage. It is active, engaged, relevant and responsible. This is a dramatic shift from the past, one which may garner greater recognition retrospectively,” adds the British online newspaper Independent in its article published on September 25/19, Wednesday.
On the international stage, Khan’s leadership style is a departure from his predecessors.
Recognition prior to politics, coupled with the promise of “incorruptibility”, signal his diplomatic stature. Incidents such as Pulwama, followed by the Kashmir crisis, put Khan’s diplomatic headship to instant test and both times, he scored, the article said.
The gist:Several requests for him to serve as an honest broker, as we have registered in earlier paragraphs, to mediate between the US-Afghanistan and US-Iran evidences the same confidence. Pakistan has surfaced as a responsible global player; a harbinger of peace with its narrative ubiquitously conveyed, the British online portal the Independent daringly writes.
If so then South Asian region shall ultimately benefit. The deterrence for India is already there now.
In the meantime, the British opposition Labour Party at its annual conference in Brighton passed a resolution seeking intervention by the international community in Jammu and Kashmir.
The resolution asked for the UN led-referendum to resolve the decades old Kashmir dispute.
The resolution submitted by Blackburn, Dudley North, Keighley, Stockport and Wakefield constituency Labour parties condemns the recent actions of the Indian government in the territory, international media sources have confirmed.
Imran Khan is thus becoming a global player? Conversely is PM Modi now a dwarf political personality in South Asia? That’s all.