During the pandemic, Pakistan’s silence on Kashmir will be costly
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As coronavirus transformed into a worldwide pandemic, governments across the world struggled to develop strategies to contain its spread within their populace and to provide medical care to those already affected by the viral infection. It won’t be wrong to say that today, the whole world is in a state of war against an enemy which can’t be seen.
In this extraordinary state of a health Armageddon, where countries have come together and have emphasized on a global response, political narratives of a rather frictional nature have not lagged behind. A US senator has alleged that the virus might have its origins in a super-laboratory in China where it could have been developed as a bio-weapon while the Chinese have hit back suggesting that it might be the US army which brought the infectious agent to Wuhan. In a manner, these exchanges give us hints regarding the discourses that will dominate global politics once the pandemic has subsided.
The South Asian subcontinent, home to more than 1.8 billion people, remains particularly vulnerable to this pandemic. South Asian states never had a sophisticated and developed health system and as the population has increased, it has further strained the health sector’s capacity to provide basic health facilities to most of the population. As if this wasn’t enough, the current state of heightened political discord between India and Pakistan, owing to the Indian revocation of Kashmir’s special status complicates matters even more. With India and Pakistan facing a unique low in their bilateral ties, the platform of South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) has been rendered politically obsolete.
Pakistan did attend the virtual SAARC summit held in order to coordinate responses on coronavirus, but the mention of the Kashmir issue by the Pakistani representative had not gone down well with Indian government and media. Pakistan’s minister of state for health, Dr. Mirza highlighted the specific vulnerability of Kashmiris to this pandemic and emphasized on the need to end the security lockdown in the Indian administered region in order to facilitate the flow of information and the provision and distribution of much needed medical supplies into the valley.
The emergence of the virus pandemic gave Pakistan a unique opportunity to redirect the world’s attention to Kashmir but with energies invested elsewhere not enough was done on this front. Meanwhile, the Indian government did capitalize on the chance to further move on with its political machinations as the world remains focused on the pandemic, and has introduced a new domicile law for Jammu and Kashmir.
Umer Karim
Since all channels of bilateral dialogue or engagement remain suspended between the two states, Pakistan was left with no other option but to utilize this SAARC meet to communicate its concerns about the situation in the valley. For the last eight months, there have been curbs on freedom of movement, political activities and communication. In such a situation, any health crisis in the valley will be exacerbated to an exponential level putting at risk the lives of a populace already choked by the actions of the Indian state.
Yet, strangely enough Pakistan has not really followed upon this rhetoric particularly on the global scale. It is interesting that instead of using this unique opportunity to force the global hand on Kashmir, Pakistan’s decision makers have appealed to global actors to lift sanctions from Iran as the country struggles to deal with the pandemic. The Pakistani stance on sanctions may have its own merits, but the question here remains: What political benefits does Pakistan accrue for taking this humanitarian line?
One can argue that the spread of coronavirus in Iran has impacted Pakistan, and as thousands of Pakistani pilgrims returned through Taftan border, quarantining such huge numbers was a logistical nightmare.
But whether Pakistan’s stance will have any impact on the United States, which has enforced this sanction’s regime on Iran remains anybody’s guess. It actually can create further problems for Pakistan within the American policymaking fraternity, which may now view Pakistan as another regional backer of Iran. And even if the US decides to relax these sanctions, what immediate benefits will Pakistan get from this?
Since August 2019, Pakistan’s decision makers have gone for an all-out confrontation with India in the soft power realm and the state’s discourse has remain Kashmir-centric quite correctly. This strategy might not have resulted in any practical political dividends, but it did manage to project the issue of Kashmir into the global limelight.
The emergence of the virus pandemic gave Pakistan a unique opportunity to redirect the world’s attention to Kashmir but with energies invested elsewhere not enough was done on this front. Meanwhile, the Indian government did capitalize on the chance to further move on with its political machinations as the world remains focused on the pandemic, and has introduced a new domicile law for Jammu and Kashmir. Only after this reality check did Pakistan’s decision-making circles turn their focus back onto Kashmir and Prime Minister Imran Khan condemned the move in his tweets.
If Pakistan wants to have a sizeable chance at keeping Kashmir in the global limelight, it needs to avoid these discursive disruptions in its foreign policy approach and needs to prioritize its national interests above ambitions of posturing itself as a regional peacemaker and mediator.
*Umar Karim is a doctoral researcher at the University of Birmingham. His research focuses on the evolution of Saudi Arabia’s strategic outlook, the Saudi-Iran tussle, conflict in Syria, and the geopolitics of Turkey, Iran and Pakistan. Twitter: @UmarKarim89
