Mr. Ashraf Jehangir Qazi’s address to the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs of the National Assembly on May 12, 2023. The the hearing was public.
Honorable Chairman Mohsin Dawar Sahib and Members of the National Assembly Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs: AsSalaamu Aleikum.
I am honored to have the opportunity to address this august body which constitutionally plays a principal role in determining the foreign policy of Pakistan. As a senior citizen deeply concerned about the state and future of my country I have a duty to be very candid.
Foreign policy is the external aspect of national policy which involves relations with other countries. My remarks today will be about Kashmir and India but I shall preface them with some necessary political observations.
Very briefly, the priorities of Pakistan’s national policy are national security, economic development and, above all, the welfare of all its people. Good governance, investment in human development and human rights protections, the empowerment of women, and the rule of law are essential to serving these interdependent priorities which provide the basis for nation building.
A country without the rule of law cannot operate a constitution since it will not be enforced. Similarly, a poor people represented and ruled by rich elites is a plutocracy which is government by the power of wealth and money, and not a democracy which is government by and for the people.
Plutocratic governance is class warfare against the people’s
welfare. Accordingly, after 75 years, governance in Pakistan today has comprehensively failed the people of Pakistan.
Pakistan remains a military-bureaucratic state. The Pakistan of Quaid-e-Azam and the Pakistan Movement did not last even a quarter of a century. No lessons were permitted to be learned from this tragedy. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto sought to “pick up the pieces” and build a popular political state. He was judicially assassinated.
All the major political leaders and parties have since learned their lesson – more or less. The military-led ruling bureaucracy, the feudal landlords, the new industrial merchants, the media moguls, and the religious establishment have collectively and resolutely prevented any substantial or sustained socio-economic reform.
One sign of a failing state is when constitutionally superior bodies become politically subordinate to constitutionally subordinate bodies. In such a hybrid democracy or civil-military diarchy subordinate institutional interests prevail over national interests. A credible and effective foreign policy becomes impossible.
When I was transferred from China in 1997 to be High Commissioner in India the Chinese Foreign Minister congratulated me on going to a more important country. I protested, saying China was the most important country for Pakistan. He politely replied saying the first priority of foreign policy is security, and with regard to security enemies are more important than friends.
Accordingly, India is necessarily the priority of Pakistan’s foreign policy. Our history demonstrates this. India is the only country with which we have gone to war. It invaded and destroyed the Quaid’s Pakistan. It is perpetrating cumulative genocide in Kashmir. It remains hostile to Pakistan. It seeks our isolation, weakening, subordination and possible annihilation.
India’s hostility, however, can be mitigated. But first we shall have to stop being a failed state governed by quarreling elites who prioritize personal, party and institutional power plays over the survival of the country. India can have no incentive to respond to the initiatives of a failing state that neither caters to the basic needs of its own people, nor retains the long-term confidence of its most important strategic partner i.e. China.
Pakistan downgraded relations with India after it annexed IOK on August 5, 2019 thereby unilaterally changing the status of J&K in violation of the Shimla Agreement and, of course, UN resolutions. This denunciation of the Shimla Agreement also rendered the LOC moot as it issued from the Shimla Agreement. By claiming to have resolved the Kashmir dispute forever, India destroyed the basis for bilateral dialogue with Pakistan, except on the basis of another surrender no less disgraceful than the one in Dhaka in 1971.
India, moreover, arrested the entire Muslim leadership of the Valley and intensified its repression to the extent that Genocide Watch issued two Genocide Alerts. While a misgoverned and isolated Pakistan was no longer able to counter India’s unilateralism and repression there was never any justification for it to meekly accept its fait accompli.
The right of self-determination is not a gift from Pakistan to Kashmir. It is the inalienable right of the Kashmiri people. UN Security Council resolutions affirm the disputed status of Kashmir, and Pakistan is a party to the dispute. Accordingly, we have an absolute obligation to uphold and support the rights of the Kashmiri people in every legitimate way.
Despite rhetorical policy declarations we have, instead, de-prioritized their freedom struggle. The people of IOK know it. The people of AJK know it. The people of Pakistan know it. The people of India know it. The world knows it.
The Foreign Minister’s visit to India confirmed this impression. Video participation would have been sufficient. At most, he could have participated in the inaugural meeting. He had met the other Foreign Ministers. Nevertheless, his reiteration of the need to restore the status quo ante in IOK for normal bilateral relations and dialogue with India to the resume was commendable.
Similarly, I believe the Prime Minister should not attend the SCO Summit in Delhi unless India restores the status of IOK. If he, nevertheless, attends the summit and restores full diplomatic relations with India, the people of Pakistan, Kashmir, and the world will draw their conclusions. Our state credibility will lie in tatters, and our foreign and Kashmir policy will become dysfunctional, with all its consequences.
For Pakistan to overcome its existential challenges and realize its potential as a vibrant state it will need to develop relations of goodwill and cooperation with all its neighbors, including eventually India. It will in particular need to maximize its economic and strategic cooperation with China. Only then can it expect to progressively change India’s strategic calculus and, accordingly, its policy towards Pakistan. Meanwhile, Track 2 or 1.5 contacts, if India is willing, should continue.
Unfortunately, messages accepting India’s fait accompli in IOK were reportedly conveyed. If true, the price for such unprincipled opportunism could be the complete alienation of Kashmiris with severe repercussions on Pakistan. A failing nuclear weapons state, moreover, would enable India to persuade the US and its allies to target Pakistan as a global menace. China could be rendered helpless to save Pakistan, as it was in 1971.
All of us have an opportunity and a duty to do all we can to save Pakistan. This should include restoring the credibility of our India and Kashmir policy. A principled compromise Kashmir settlement, verifiably acceptable to the majority of the Kashmiri people, may still be possible if Pakistan can restore its domestic coherence and international credibility.
This has so far been prevented by the elite capture of national and foreign policy, and by procedural instead of participatory democracy. Meanwhile, India is altering the population of the Valley, which is part of the genocide process according to the Genocide Convention of 1948.
Finally, a younger generation of Pakistani intellectuals is emergingthat emphasizes India’s emergence as a regional superpower; Pakistan’s
failure to function as a credible state; the world’s indifference to law and morality including human rights except as part of big power political and economic strategies; and existential challenges from global warming, the threat of nuclear conflict, the global erosion of democratic governance, pandemics, the neglect especially in Pakistan of education, science and technology, health, human rights, etc.
Accordingly, many of them argue that UN resolutions on Kashmir have become irrelevant, Pakistan cannot sacrifice itself for Kashmir, the Kashmiris know Pakistan’s dilemma and want it to fully engage with India for a principled compromise settlement along the lines of the four point proposal of General Musharraf so that their indescribable suffering can be brought to an end.
The bravery of the Kashmiri Mujahideen will always be written in golden letters, but objective realities have also to be taken into account. Allah has given us both a heart for iman, jazba and shahadat (faith, passion and sacrifice), and a brain for maslaha, tadabbur and dunyawi kamyabi (pragmatism, reflection and worldly success.) As Allama Iqbal asked: Pas chi bayad kard? What is to be done? The heart and the brain are meant to reinforce each other, not oppose each other. The history of the successes and failures of Islamic peoples and nations testifies to this.
Do these arguments of 21st century young Pakistani intellectuals constitute realistic or defeatist advice? That is the question. Thorough nation-wide discussions are required.
Thank you.
