Harsha Kakar
In a recent press interaction, IG of Police of Pakistan’s Punjab, Dr Usman Anwar, accused India of being behind the riots which targeted Christians and destroyed their churches. He claimed that these were planned and implemented by Indian agents to divert attention from the ongoing violence in Manipur. Quoting Anwar, ‘In order to divert attention (from Manipur), a series of strange incidents like the Jaranwala tragedy started in Pakistan and then the desecration of the Holy Quran and the conspiracy to harm the minority communities by inciting the people started taking place.’This is the latest example of Pakistan blaming others for its own follies/ failures.
Pakistan’s Dawn, in an editorial, questioned the IG of police and stated, ‘what of the hundreds of local individuals who went berserk and torched churches and Christian houses in Jaranwala? Surely all of them were not foreign mercenaries working against the interests of Pakistan.’ Anwar was also silent when last week his own police personnel in Lahore took it upon themselves to destroy an Ahmadiyya place of worship.
Religious fanaticism buoyed by the Blasphemy law is Pakistan’s home-grown problem, exploited for the past several decades by political parties to display power and the army to exert pressure on the Government. Regular attacks occur on Ahmadi places of worship led by the TLP (Tahreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan). Recently, the Punjab IG also accused India of transporting drugs to Pakistan’s Punjab employing drones, ignoring that movement of drugs is from Pakistan to India.
A fortnight ago, Pakistan’s former ambassador to the US, India and China, Ashraf Jehangir Qazi, blamed India for their diplomatic failures. He mentioned Indian influence in Moscow and Washington resulted in Pakistan’s relations with these countries declining, ignoring Pakistan is currently a non-entity and its location no longer of strategic relevance. Qazi also blamed India for deteriorating Indo-Pak ties, while bypassingPakistan’s policy of employing terrorism as an extension of its diplomacy, the root cause of India refusing to engage with it.
Recent killings of Sikh terrorists and anti-India terrorist group leaders in Pak, largely due to infighting over proceeds from drugs and control over the organization, is blamed on Indian RAW. Pakistan security agencies announced the arrest of an ex-Ranger commando reportedly working for RAW. Earlier in 2021, India was accused of being behind an attack close to the residence of known terrorist Hafiz Saeed’s residence. Pakistan has never displayed investigated proof of Indian involvement, except forced confessions. Its gullible anti-India public swallows these lies.
Hafiz Saeed, the leader of the Lashkar-e-Taiba, in a public rally in 2014, announced that the then floods in Pakistan’s Punjab were due to India releasing additional water into rivers flowing into their country, without pre-information, ignoring their own poor water management policy. For decades, Pakistan accused India of supporting anti-Pak terrorist groups from Afghanistan. It even announced that the Indian consulate in Jalalabad was involved. Today it blames Kabul for the same. Incidentally, Pakistan is the only neighbour of Afghanistan which accuses them of supporting terrorism.
In April last year, after a series of attacks on security personnel in Baluchistan, Pakistan blamed Iran for permitting terrorist groups to regroup in their country, while ignoring the presence of anti-Iran terrorist groups on its soil. Ultimately Pakistan’s army chief and foreign minister had to visit Tehran and sign an agreement of not supporting terrorist groups on each other’s soil. Most UN designated global terrorists and terrorist groups exist on Pak soil, a fact Pakistan seeks to ignore.
In 2019, Pak media carried reports of an Indian delegation visiting the IMF HQ and raising objections on the package being offered to Islamabad. When the IMF delayed the ninth review as Pak was unwilling to meet its obligations, Pakistan’s finance minister, refusing to look inwards, blamed ‘geopolitics.’ He claimed the IMF wanted Pak to default, while the IMF had reservations on Pakistan’s budget and that both the PTI and PDM Governments did not meet their conditions for release of loans. Pakistan’s economic mess is evidently due to the ineptness and corruption of successive Governments controlled by an equally corrupt and clueless army running the country from the backseat.
The habit of accusing others for own follies and failures rose to new heights when Imran Khan blamed the US of orchestrating his downfall. He ignored the reality of the country sinking under his illogical but populist economic policies and that the IMF would not extend any support because he backed down from their agreements. The Pak army realized that unless he was removed, the country could collapse economically. Once his arrest for the 09 May riots was imminent, Imran changed his game, stopped accusing the US and shifted his attacks onto General Bajwa, the former army chief.
Islamabad has lost its allies and friends as no one wants to fund a nation which is failing due to its own faulty policies and refuses to introspect and amend itself. Unemployment and frustration due to high inflation is taken out on minorities, while others are blamed.
Currently, the Rupee is trading at over Rs 300 to a dollar, stock markets are crashing, electricity, gas and oil prices are skyrocketing forcing companies to shut down thereby increasing unemployment, resulting in increased protests, allwhile the Government is helpless.
The country, run by ignorant generals from the backseat, with no clue of economics, are only hastening its downfall. Possibly no one will come and bail out Pakistan now. China, which was pumping in funds to back its failed CPEC, is also likely to pull back and save further losses. Pakistan is on the verge of collapse.
A nation which fails to introspect, accept its fault lines, works to overcome them would continue sinking in its own quagmire. Pakistan blames everyone for its failures while ignoring reality that its downfall is the result of its own misplaced priorities and hybrid form of Government. Islamization within the nation has led to the creation of an incapable work force.
Pakistan, like an Ostrich, will bury its head in the sand, refusing to correct its destructive policies while accusing others of ganging up against it, which its gullible public would swallow. This is a certain recipe for collapse.
The author is Major General of (Retd)
Follow our WhatsApp channel
