It has become a routine part of the Foreign Office’s job these days: Denying allegations of Pakistani involvement in this or that. Let us assume for the sake of argument that the Foreign Office is correct in all of its denials and each of the allegations lodged against Pakistan are meant to malign the country. The question remains, why is everyone out to malign us?
On Thursday, the Foreign Office issued a statement rejecting Afghan claims that Pakistan is involved in terrorist attacks.
“We reiterate our categorical rejection of the Afghan allegations of involvement in terrorist attacks, insurgent activities or cross-border shelling. We also firmly reject any statements casting aspersions on Pakistan’s commitment to fight terrorism,” a statement issued by the Foreign Office said.
This denial was issued the same day that the Foreign Office denied Indian claims that Pakistan’s diplomat in Colombo was an ISI agent plotting attacks against foreign consulates.
But it’s not just India and Afghanistan that are making such claims against Pakistan.
The Foreign Office has also had to deny Chinese claims that jihadi militants carrying out attacks in Xinjiang were being trained in Pakistan.
Sometimes, the denials come back to haunt us. The Foreign Office denied Iranian claims that missing border guards were being held in Pakistan, only to watch the Iranians released by Pakistani militants a few weeks later.
Pakistan strongly denied claims of former American military chief Admiral Mullen that Haqqani militants were a ‘veritable arm of ISI’, only to watch former DG ISPR Gen Abbas admit that Haqqani militants were being managed by intelligence agencies.
As seen in this brief list of examples, it’s not just Western countries that are making these accusations against Pakistan. Even our ‘all weather friend’ China is doing. In the latest allegations of our diplomat working for nefarious purposes in Sri Lanka, the claims were not actually originated in India but Malaysia – an Islamic country.
Whether or not these allegations are all true or all lies should be investigated properly so that we don’t continue to experience embarrassments such as happened when our denials become proven hollow. At the same time, we should also be reflecting on why Pakistan faces so many allegations from every corner of the globe.
