Wise up, Khan, you have tried all else

Pak must turn off terror tap and seek talks

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan’s increasingly shrill rhetoric on India and Kashmir has failed to win him a sympathetic ear from the international community. Even Pakistan’s traditional friends in the Muslim world are running out of patience. A couple of days ago, dignitaries from Saudi Arabia and the UAE are reported to have told Pakistan to tone down rhetoric and instead engage in back channel diplomacy with India. Khan has tried belligerence – even writing an opinion piece in The New York Times a fortnight ago warning the world of a nuclear war if it continues its “appeasement” of India. More recently, he warned that the two countries were getting “ever closer to a direct military confrontation” that could easily go out of control; he has warned India that he would teach it “a lesson”. Belligerence hasn’t worked. So, now, in desperation, Pakistan is up to denying its airspace for overflight from India, including for the President and Prime Minister of India. That won’t work either, and Khan should know that.

In the seven weeks since the Narendra Modi government revoked Article 370, Khan, his ministers and diplomats have been running from pillar to post to seek the support of countries in their campaign against India. He has accused India of unilateral action in Kashmir and criticized it for human rights violations against the Kashmiri people. This is blatant hypocrisy. It is well known that leaders in Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir are stooges of the military. Democracy doesn’t exist in POK, let alone in Pakistan. While India does need to act swiftly to restore rights in the Valley, Khan and his generals are hardly qualified to talk about democracy in Kashmir or elsewhere. These efforts have yielded Islamabad precious little. No country, with the exception of its “all-weather friend” China, has come out in support of Pakistan on the Kashmir issue. Every country, including China, is aware of Pakistan’s sponsorship of terrorism.

Khan’s muscle-flexing and rhetoric may strike a chord with the Pakistani military and its protégés, the various anti-Indian terrorist groups, but even the ordinary Pakistani, who is struggling to make a living and put food on his table, isn’t impressed. Hence, his whimpering about his so-called efforts over the past year to initiate dialogue with India has convinced no one. But offering talks even as Pakistan threatens war and funds anti-India terrorists is disingenuous and will convince no one. If Pakistan is committed to resolving problems with India, all it needs to do is turn off the terror tap. That, rather than threats, accusations and unfriendly actions, is the easiest path to dialogue with Delhi.