- Time Pakistanis get over sentimentality
India’s illegal annexation of Kashmir followed by widespread repression has raised serious questions about the relevance of the Ummah and the OIC in today’s international politics. None of our traditional Gulf allies condemned the annexation or questioned the revocation of Article 370 or took measures in support of the Kashmiri people. Some in fact honoured Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at a time when he was moving ahead full speed to reduce the Muslim majority in Kashmir. The irony is that Indian repression was exposed and condemned by some of the secular Western lawmakers and the liberal section of media on both sides of the Atlantic.
This has brought down the image of the Gulf Arab kingdoms in the eyes of many Pakistanis. Those hoping that Islamic solidarity would lead the kingdoms to support Pakistan’s stance have been shocked. A prominent Senator told the Upper House that it is time for Pakistan to pull out of the OIC, which he described as “worse than the United Nations”. The “bubble of an Islamic Ummah had burst” and Pakistan should reappraise its relationship with it, he said. He was suddenly reminded that the OIC had failed to act whenever Pakistan or any other Muslim country faced a difficult situation like the 1990s genocide in Bosnia and the ethnic cleansing in Palestine.
The feeling of betrayal must not lead one to ignore the ground realities. As long as we continue to carry the begging bowl, fail to turn Pakistan into an economic power though mega investment in education and manpower training and live on the earnings of semi-skilled manpower working in the Gulf, we will receive the treatment we have got. Imran Khan had pooh-poohed the idea of turning Pakistan into an Asian tiger, promising instead to turn the country into Riasat-e-Madina. There is a need on his part to realise that what matters in international relations today is the economic clout of a country rather than religion We also need national unity. As another Senator put it, it’s unthinkable that on the one hand we have turmoil, instability, repression and division at home while on the other we run an effective foreign policy. We need a healing touch at home first, he concluded.
