Should Imran Khan attend the Modi-hosted SCO meeting?
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A virtual scheduled meeting of the heads of government of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) is being hosted by India on Nov. 30. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has invited his counterparts from seven other member countries, including Pakistan. Should Prime Minister Imran Khan attend?
Before I answer the question, it is important to understand that the highest decision-making body in the SCO is the Council of Heads of State. And that is understandably so. When the organization was formed in 2001, its six founding member countries, namely, China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan were under presidential forms of government. India and Pakistan, which became full members in 2017, are the only two members with parliamentary forms of government, where the powers rest with the Prime Minister and not the President.
Accordingly, Prime Ministers of both these countries have been attending the Council of Heads of State meetings and mostly skipping the heads of government meetings to which they would send either their foreign ministers or de facto deputy prime ministers. This anomaly will continue to exist as there is hardly any possibility for the two countries to switch to a presidential form of government.
Some analysts in Pakistan are suggesting that since it is a virtual meeting, Prime Minister Imran Khan won’t lose anything by participating; he should not let the opportunity go to forcefully present Pakistan’s perspectives on the SCO, especially the systemic and sub-systemic variables that may well stymie its cooperative agenda. As per SCO rules of business, the Prime Minister would not be able to raise bilateral issues, but he would still be able to talk about them indirectly and make his point without naming India.
There are others who differ on two grounds. First, since it is a heads of government meeting, which Prime Minister Modi has himself never attended, there is no point for Khan to oblige by putting aside the now well-established practice.
Moreover, Pakistan-India relations are at present stuck in a gridlock over Kashmir. Attending the meeting even virtually will likely not go down well with the people of Jammu and Kashmir who are already somewhat dejected at Pakistan’s Kashmir diplomacy.
Thus, Khan attending a meeting being presided over by Prime Minister Modi would not be received positively by Kashmiris.
Some commentators are even suggesting that Pakistan should boycott the meeting altogether so that a stern and clear message is conveyed to the international community at large and China and Russia in particular about the seriousness of the bilateral situation-- as also demonstrated in intensive cross-Line of Control firing recently.
The SCO is an important forum and Pakistan attaches immense value to its multifarious activities, including in the realm of counterterrorism. While it is enormously difficult for Pakistan to ignore the continuing bilateral tension and the lockdown in Jammu and Kashmir, its absence from the meeting will feed the image India wants to portray: that Pakistan is the problem country.
Abdul Basit
To them, unless Pakistan ups the diplomatic ante, the world will continue dismissing Kashmir and pandering to India despite its unconstitutional steps which were in breach of relevant UN Security Council resolutions, as well as the 1972 Simla Agreement between the two countries.
When all is said and done, the latter may not be the most desirable option. The SCO is an important forum and Pakistan attaches immense value to its multifarious activities, including in the realm of counterterrorism. While it is enormously difficult for Pakistan to ignore the continuing bilateral tension and the lockdown in Jammu and Kashmir, its absence from the meeting will feed the image India wants to portray: that Pakistan is the problem country.
India would not mind, rather it would welcome, Pakistan staying away from the meeting.
Under these circumstances, the best option for Pakistan would be to attend the meeting at the ministerial level, and it doesn’t have to be the foreign minister.
Pakistan would do well to convey its anger at what India did in Kashmir and to show that even working relations between the two countries will remain elusive till India seriously engages in conflict resolution. For Pakistan, more of the same cannot work. Nor can Pakistan put Kashmir on the back-burner, for it is not a territorial dispute but involves the destiny of 12 million Kashmiris still awaiting the right to self-determination promised them in 1948.
Khan may designate a minister, for instance the minister for human rights or Kashmir affairs to deliver the Pakistan statement at the virtual plenary meeting. Modi may take potshots at Pakistan as he did in a recent heads of state meeting of the SCO-- but indirectly so that Pakistan is not forced to respond.
In any case, it would be in the interests of India as the host to avoid a direct slanging match with Pakistan and ensure a meeting clear of controversy.
The dilemma for Pakistan is to balance its SCO membership requirements with its legitimate outrage on Kashmir-- and this will continue till diplomacy is able to work out a sustainable mechanism that nudges the two hostile countries towards finding mutually palatable solutions to seemingly intractable problems.
– Abdul Basit is the president of Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies. He was previously Pakistan's ambassador to Germany and Pakistan's High Commissioner to India.
Twitter: @abasitpak1
