Everything one expects from a sponsor of terror
Pakistan's Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif delivered a remarkable speech at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) late Wednesday night. He virtually vindicated India's position that Pakistan was complicit in the unrest in Jammu & Kashmir and that it eulogised terrorists operating in the State. Sharif was reading from a script clearly dictated by his Army. By endorsing the Army's position, he has demonstrated his vulnerability and lack of status. Three-fourth of his speech was devoted to the issue of Kashmir. Perhaps it was meant to compensate for his failure to gather global support for Pakistan's stand post-Uri attack. The address became a series of self-goals. Sharif hailed terrorist Burhani Wani as a “young leader” who had “emerged as a symbol of the latest KashmiriIntifada”. Wani was neutralised by Indian security forces in an encounter recently. Thus, for the Pakistani Prime Minister, a self-confessed commander of the terror outfit, Hizbul Mujahideen, is a martyr.
The august gathering at the UNGA could have scarcely believed its ears. It need not be over-emphasised that the Hizbul Mujahideen operates freely from Pakistani territory. Sharif further referred to the violent unrest in Kashmir as part of the same Intifada as a “popular and peaceful freedom movement”. The UNGA is not a forum for jokes, certainly not for sick ones. More than five dozen people lost their lives in the turmoil in Kashmir valley, yet the Pakistani Premier sees it as peaceful. But then, when Pakistan is actively engaged in creating disturbance in Jammu & Kashmir, there is little else to expect from its leader. Sharif has called for a “serious and sustained dialogue” with India for peace in the region, but his Army, with the support of the civilian Government he heads, continues to push armed militants inside India to disrupt peace and harmony. Sharif also harped on the UN resolution for plebiscite. That resolution is as dead as Pakistan's reputation.
Islamabad's Kashmir rant had ceased getting global attention long ago, but this UN session was especially a bad time for Sharif to raise the issue of “Indian brutalities” in Kashmir valley. The atrocities by Pakistani forces in Balochistan are being increasingly exposed before the world. The Modi Government's open support to the Baloch cause has revived the issue like never before, putting Pakistan on the back foot.
With his intemperate speech, Sharif may have appeased his Army and militant organisations back home (and Pakistan's stooge, the Hurriyat Conference, in Kashmir). But he has stripped himself of the remaining fig leaf of global credibility. Nobody is going to buy his argument that New Delhi has been posing ‘unacceptable conditions' to resolve the Kashmir issue. India's position is that talks and terror cannot go together. The halt of terrorism cannot be considered a ‘condition', but a necessity for any dialogue to be meaningful. By seeing it as a condition, Pakistan is effectively saying: ‘We will continue to promote terrorism in India until the Kashmir dispute is resolved.’ One wonders which country with a modicum of self-dignity will consider holding talks under such situations. Meanwhile, Sharif's reference in his speech to his nation being a “nuclear power”, was a badly disguised attempt to threaten India.