India’s claim of being the biggest democracy is being questioned all over the world on account of the rising wave of Hindu nationalism, widespread suppression of dissent, the government’s fastening grip over media and judiciary, atrocities in Occupied Kashmir, and the use of strong arms tactics against the Indian peasant’s peaceful protest.
India’s deterioration under Prime Minister Narendra Modi has led some in Pakistan to hold that this it is the right time to project Pakistan as a peace-loving, democratic and inclusive state at peace with itself and its neighbours and keen to develop economic relations with all countries. This is what SAPM on National Security Moeed Yousuf told a gathering of American policymakers in Washington in January. He assured them that Pakistan under Imran Khan is a new country. While Pakistan doesn’t want terrorism in the region, he said, it is keen to develop a broader relationship with the Biden Administration that benefits both sides.
Pakistan needs to set its record straight on a number of issues before it can prove that while it might not be as big a market as India it is morally on a higher pedestal than its eastern neighbour.
US concern about Omar Sheikh’s acquittal in the Daniel Pearl murder was conveyed to Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi in his very first telephonic encounter with the new US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken. This indicates that while Pakistan has done a lot to fight terrorism, much more needs to be done
Extremists outfits have to be reined in. The TLP has issued an ultimatum requiring the government to expel the French ambassador by February 16 or face agitation. Why is the government reluctant to enforce the National Action Plan (NAP)?
Pakistan’s democratic credentials will remain suspect as long as the media continues to be in chains. Also as long as the Treasury does not develop better working relations with the opposition to enable the National Assembly to function peacefully.
The government has to go the extra mile to overcome the state’s chronic inability to protect its marginalised and vulnerable people, including religious and ethnic minorities. That missing persons remain untraced despite the superior courts’ intervention does not create a good image. To have a unique position in the region and gain international respect Pakistan needs to undertake bold moves rather than rely on hollow claims.
