The virtual address to the UN General Assembly by Prime Minister Imran Khan undeniably was a conscience-rattling discourse wherein he, besides pleading for collective action to face the triple challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic, the accompanying economic melt-down and climate change, also took a swipe at the double standards on human rights shown by the big powers, particularly at Indian atrocities in Indian-Held Kashmir, expressed concern over the rising phenomenon of Islamophobia and urged the world to extend all possible support to the Taliban regime in Afghanistan to forestall the looming humanitarian crisis there, warning that abandoning the Afghan people could have disastrous consequences.
In regards to the conflict in Afghanistan over four decades, he rightly lamented the fact that in spite of Pakistan’s having been an ally against the Soviet Blitzkreig in Afghanistan, the USA pulled out after the war, leaving Pakistan to face the consequences. Then again in the War on Terror, despite sacrificing the lives of 80,000 Pakistanis, suffering a loss of $150 billion to its economy for being an ally of the USA, the presence of 3 million Afghan refugees and 3.5 million internally displaced persons with all the accompanying debilitating consequences, Pakistan is being blamed for the turn of events in Afghanistan by the USA.
Honestly speaking, the Prime Minister’s discourse indeed reflected his farsightedness and stature as a global statesman rather than a leader of the Third World country, who minced no words about the global realities and those responsible for it
The reality is that the accusations levelled against Pakistan are a deliberate attempt by the USA to portray it as a fall-guy to sweep under the carpet its own follies and failures in Afghanistan, the biggest being to foist a military solution and trying to set in motion a process of cultural change in a tribal society without understanding its dynamics and ground realities. In fact, the USA in a big way is responsible for the post-Soviet withdrawal events that saw the rise of terrorism and the use of Afghan territory by different terrorist entities, besides factional fighting between the Taliban and the Northern Alliance. The developing situation in Afghanistan is also a consequence of the wrong decision of the USA to pull out before a political settlement was reached between the Taliban and the Afghan government.
One can hardly contest his assessment of the likely humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan, the urgency of helping the Afghan people and the consequences of leaving them alone. He rightly said “If we neglect Afghanistan right now, according to the UN half the people of Afghanistan are already vulnerable, and by next year almost 90 percent of the people in Afghanistan will go below the poverty line. There is a huge humanitarian crisis looming ahead. And this will have serious repercussions not just for the neighbours of Afghanistan but everywhere. A destabilized, chaotic Afghanistan will again become a safe haven for international terrorists – the reason why the US came to Afghanistan in the first place. There is only one way to go. We must strengthen and stabilize the current government for the sake of people of Afghanistan”
In regards to the situation in Indian-Held Kashmir in the aftermath of the scrapping of the special status of the state including attempts to change its demographic realities through promulgation of a new domicile law, blatant violation of human rights and continuation of the killing spree by the Indian security forces, he was right on the money to say that all those actions by the Modi regime constituted a breach of UN resolutions, international law, humanitarian laws and the fourth Geneva Convention while the world looked the other way. Pakistan has issued two dossiers to the international community in regards to human rights violation by Indian security forces, detailing Indian atrocities in Indian-Held Kashmir and its acts of state terrorism against Pakistan.
Imran Khan courageously castigated the double standards of the world community in regards to human rights in these words: “It is unfortunate, very unfortunate, that the world’s approach to violations of human rights lacks even-handedness, and even is selective. Geopolitical considerations, or corporate interests, commercial interests often compel major powers to overlook the transgressions of their affiliated’ countries”. He reiterated that Pakistan desired peace with India which, however, was contingent upon implementation of the UNSC resolutions on Kashmir and the creation of a conducive atmosphere by India for a meaningful and result-oriented engagement with Pakistan for which it would have to rescind its unilateral and illegal measures taken since 5 August 2019.
Rising Islamophobia was also the focus of his attention, which has raised its ugly head in the aftermath of 9/11, creating social upheavals in the relevant countries, but is also casting its evil shadow on vitally needed inter-faith harmony at the global level. Dilating on how the issue became of international concern, he said, “In the aftermath of 9/11 terrorist attacks, terrorism has been associated with Islam by some quarters. This has increased the tendency of right-wing, xenophobic and violent nationalists, extremists and terrorist groups to target Muslims.” The world has seen some ugly manifestations of this phenomenon including the attack on mosques in New Zealand in which nearly 150 Muslims were massacred and the very recent attacks on Muslim families in Canada. The world urgently needs to pay attention to this development.
\No person with a conscience and believing in humanitarian norms can contest his claim about India being the major offender in regards to Islamophobia practised as a state policy. He was right to say “The hate-filled ‘Hindutva’ ideology, propagated by the fascist RSS-BJP regime, has unleashed a reign of fear and violence against India’s 200 million strong Muslim community. Mob lynching by cow vigilantes; frequent pogroms, such as the one in New Delhi last year; discriminatory citizenship laws to purge India of Muslims; and a campaign to destroy mosques across India and obliterate its Muslim heritage and history, are all part of this criminal enterprise.”
No wonder then that a former Indian Prime Minister in an article published in The Hindu of 6 March 2020 had held the Modi government responsible for killing of 50 Muslims in Delhi when they were protesting against the Citizenship Amendment Bill and also accused it of turning India into a majoritarian state.
The triple challenges facing humanity mentioned by the Prime Minister in his address are of colossal magnitude beyond the prowess of any single nation to overcome and do need a collective action to ward off their cataclysmic impact. They need complete solidarity among all the nations but as we have seen in the case of the Covid-19 pandemic, when the world failed to show solidarity and some countries even tried to extract political mileage from it. In the backdrop of this reality the Prime Minister was not off the mark when he said, “The common threats faced by us today not only expose the fragility of the international system, they also underscore the oneness of humanity. To address the triple crisis of Covid pandemic, economic downturn, and climate emergency, we need a comprehensive strategy.”
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