Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar, who took the oath of office early this week, has assumed the charge as foreign minister when the country is facing serious challenges on the front of foreign policy, particularly the highly-strained ties with the US and normalisation of relations with arch rival India.
Hina will have to face another problem of immense influence of military establishment on the country’s foreign policy, which has much or less always been there since Pakistan’s inception in 1947 but owing to the grave security threats that the country is confronting now it has increased manifold.
All these challenges are no doubt very difficult in nature but keeping in view Hina’s young age and little experience in foreign policy matters, expecting her to overcome them and prove her credentials as an able foreign policy manager may be too much to ask for.
The inexperience of the young foreign office boss is challenged by none other than her own party leaders, who not only opposed her in their own discussions and deliberations but some of them took up the matter directly with the president challenging her naiveté and her credentials as genuine party loyalist. Only a couple of years ago she had been enjoying the patronage of former president Pervez Musharraf and his prime minister Shaukat Aziz. Being the first woman foreign minister, Hina may be able to project a softer image for Pakistan but it’s not all that the country needs in these testing times. Even in the Foreign Office, many officials are surprised over the government’s decision to choose someone so young and having a degree in hotel management for such a challenging job. “Hina may lack the stature and knowledge that is required for this slot and above all she will have to deal with the all powerful military establishment, which has been involved in Pakistan’s foreign policy’s formulation for decades but now its influence is more than ever owing to serious security challenges that the country is confronting,” an official in the Foreign Ministry said, seeking anonymity.
However, she does carry one advantage – that she is not new to a top government office. In the previous regime, she was the minister of state for economic affairs and dealt extensively with international donors during those years.
The first test in the difficult business of foreign affairs for Pakistan’s new foreign minister is her meeting with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton today (Saturday) on the sidelines of ASEAN meeting in Bali, Indonesia.
However, her second and more difficult test would be her ministerial-level meeting with Indian Foreign Minister SM Krishna later this month to discuss the progress on the ongoing Indo-Pak peace process aimed at the settlement of Kashmir and other bilateral issues. Many in the country believe that Hina would be no match to a seasoned diplomat like Krishna.
JUI-F chief Fazlur Rehman on Friday said a seasoned person like Krishna would outsmart the novice in foreign affairs like Hina, adding that choosing her as foreign minister was certainly a bad decision.
Will Hina stand the test of time?
