Sinister Move Against Pakistan

Anti-Pakistan forces including India and its foreign collaborators have made a sinister move and launched propaganda campaign to poison the minds of people of Gilgit-Baltistan by distorting history. Gilgit-Baltistan (BG) is integral part of Pakistan, and the people are as patriotic and brave as people of other regions of Pakistan. They had fought against Indian forces and were able to get the area freed from Indian Army in 1948. 

Of course, differences between various sects exist in Pakistan, and terrorists have killed people belonging to different sects. But India is trying to stir anti-Pakistan sentiments in the GB. In this context, Imtiaz Hussain, president of GB National Congress and Senge H. Sering President of Washington-based Institute of GB Studies are trying to create ill-will amongst the people of the GB and people of other provinces. They also advocate resumption of traffic and trade across LoC (from GB to Ladakh), while opposing building of dams, expressways, railways and gas pipelines by Government of Pakistan. 

But they ignore the fact that apart from Kashmir being a disputed territory, India is busy building dams on all rivers flowing into Pakistan from occupied Kashmir in violation of Indus Water Treaty to regain control of water of western rivers. This is being done under well thought-out strategy to render Pakistan’s link-canal system redundant, destroy agriculture of Pakistan, which is its mainstay, and turn Pakistan into a desert. 

India has planned to construct 62 dams/hydro-electric units on Rivers Chenab and Jhelum; thus enabling it to render these rivers dry by 2014. Using its clout in Afghanistan, India succeeded in convincing Karzai regime to build a dam on River Kabul and set up Kama Hydroelectric Project using 0.5MAF of Pakistan water. It offered technical assistance for the proposed project, which would have serious repercussions on the water flow in River Indus. Since the US has decided to withdraw its forces from Afghanistan, and has belatedly realized that without the cooperation from Pakistan, it is not possible to ensure and sustain peace in Afghanistan.

India now feels that it has no role after American and NATO forces withdraw from Afghanistan; hence India has increased its efforts to destabilize Pakistan through its collaborators. Sering is spreading disinformation, and is trying to create confusion about status of GB in the eyes of the GB people and the world at large.

There is a perception that he has been assigned the task of creating sense of separatism and stirring feelings of dissent among the GB people. He is currently based in New Delhi and is a visiting faculty for Indian Institute of Defense and Strategic Analysis (IDSA). Sering with help of Indian diplomatic cadre has managed to participate in UNHCR sessions, only to highlight (alleged) HR violations in GB. The Institute for GB Studies professes cultural, economic and environmental rights of people of GB, but actually conducts venomous propaganda against Pakistan, and is involved in creating hatred between different sects and the people belonging to different ethnicities.

But people of GB would not buy into Indian propaganda and distorted logic of anti-Pakistan, and are resolved to frustrate the pernicious designs of anti-Pakistan forces because they are as patriotic as people from other parts of Pakistan.

In November 2012, Institute for Gilgit-Baltistan Studies in its testimony before the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission of the US Congress, called for demilitarization of Gilgit-Baltistan, what it said, with a view to promoting genuine autonomy and democracy, for re-instatement of state subject rule and people to people contact between Ladakh and Gilgit-Baltistan. “The US must persuade both India and Pakistan to open channels of economic and cultural activity between Ladakh and Gilgit-Baltistan and enable the UN to increase its role in Gilgit-Baltistan to protect the rights of natives,” said Senge Sering during a hearing by Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission on Indigenous People of Asia.

In November 2012, the UK based think tank The Henry Jackson Society, in collaboration with the Washington based Institute for Gilgit Baltistan Studies, held an event titled “Gilgit-Baltistan: South-Central Asia’s Socio-Economic Integration and Regional Politics” at the House of Lords. One wonders as to why Britain allows its think tanks to involve in anti-Pakistan activities. Lord Sir Clive Soley of Hammersmith had reportedly facilitated the discussion and the panel consisted of Mumtaz Khan, Executive Director of International Center for Peace and Democracy, and Senge H. Sering, President of the Institute for Gilgit Baltistan Studies. The speakers observed that revival of travel across the Line of Control between Gilgit-Baltistan and Ladakh would help reunite more than ten thousand divided family members after more than six decades.

At the same time, they reckoned that it will help revive the Himalayan culture to counter rapidly growing extremism and transform the economy of the poverty-stricken disputed region by interlinking the GB with Central Asia and Ladakh, Nepal and Tibet.

Addressing on the occasion Senge H. Sering concluded: “China’s role in South Asia will increase with the withdrawal of NATO forces from Afghanistan, putting excessive pressure on the land, society and resources of Gilgit-Baltistan, and that Pakistan and China should respect the concerns of the locals in this regards”. In fact, India and its strategic partners are covertly working on the policy to contain China, and they use each every ruse and subterfuge to paint China in poor light. India had also raised objection to Neelam-Jhelum hydroelectric project being constructed by China on the grounds that it was a disputed territory.

China did not pay two hoots or deemed it necessary to comment on Indian pleas. Since Pakistan took the decision to construct Bhasha Dam, India persuaded the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank not to fund the project, as according to it the Northern Areas are a disputed territory.

Reportedly, both banks have sought no objection from India. Nobody asks India as to why it was constructing dams in Indian Occupied Kashmir, which is indeed a disputed territory as acknowledged in UNSC resolutions.

Katju’s Statements As Just An Unguarded Outburst

Had he been a Pakistani citizen, Justice Markandey Katju would have faced Article 6 of the constitution for sedition because what he has written about Pakistan and its Founding Father Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah amounts to treason. His being a foreigner and outside the jurisdiction of local laws, has proved his saving grace. However, after his retirement from his position as an honorable judge in the highly respected Indian judiciary, Justice Katju should not have assumed the role of a citizen free to abuse the freedom of speech like Bal Thakarey who abuses Pakistan and indulges in character assassination of Pakistani leadership as an article of faith. 

Justice Katju, according to his statement, is Chairman of the Press Council of India and former judge of the Supreme Court. The institutions to which he belongs cannot escape responsibility for his utterances and keep their eyes closed to the mischief he is creating between the two independent sovereign states which are also members of SAARC and the UN. The sovereignty of Pakistan, which at present happens to be a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council, is being questioned. Mr Katju has involved not only the Press Council of India as its chairman but also the UN Security Council with regard to the independent and sovereign status of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.

In an article under the title of “The truth about Pakistan” published in The Nation on March 2, 2013, Mr Katju states “I do not believe that there are two nations, there is only one nation, that is India, and Pakistan is part of India. Pakistan was created in pursuance of the wicked British policy of divide and rule and the bogus Two Nation Theory”. The British government has thus been blamed for creating Pakistan through its wicked policy. The Press Council of India should explain whether it owns the statement of its Chairman about Pakistan and its Founder Quaid-i- Azam. The government of India cannot keep its eyes closed to the wild statement of the Chairman of the Press Council of India on vital issues of foreign policy challenging the very basis of the creation of Pakistan i.e. the Two Nation Theory.

Similarly, the UN Security Council should take notice of the statement of a judge of the Supreme Court of India. I for one do not take Mr Justice Markandey Katju’s statements as just an unguarded outburst. I regard his article as a “bomb blast” designed to destabilize Pakistan at this critical juncture when it is beset with various internal and external challenges. To quote Mr Katju again about his deep concern over the internal situation in Pakistan, “According to reports, Pakistani cities Karachi, Quetta, Peshawar, etc. are rapidly becoming killing fields, with bomb blasts and gun firing a regular occurrence, and ethnic violence between Sunnis and Shias, and persecution of minorities escalating. Nobody knows that when he steps out into the streets of these cities whether or not he will return alive. A beautiful metropolitan city like Karachi is becoming, if it has not already become, a Jurassic Park”. Do I have to tell a retired Judge of Supreme Court of India that his statement is a brazen interference in the internal affairs of a sovereign State?

Many blame India for the above sad state of affairs in Pakistan. The Pakistan foreign office and press representatives bodies, CPNE and APNS, should give a suitable rejoinder to the Indian Press Council and its Chairman.

The space does not allow the narration of the sad saga of dissensions and revolts in a number of states of India that should make a self-respecting Indian hang his head in shame rather than lecture others on democracy and peace. The Indian occupied part of Kashmir is a classic example where brutal suppression is being exercised against the legitimate freedom fighters and independent observers are not allowed to visit. My comment: “Physian, heal thyself.”