Apart from strengthening the Pakistani military and its control over Pakistani society, Pakistan has accomplished little through its periodic outbursts over the years on the issue of Kashmir. A similar outburst occurred recently after Pakistan was caught napping when India revoked Article 370.
Every Pakistani is taught from childhood that Kashmir is the shah rug or jugular vein and that Pakistan is incomplete without the ‘K’ (Kashmir) in the acronym that was Pakistan (Punjab, Afghania, Kashmir, Sindh)
Since 1990, every year February 5 is celebrated in Pakistan as Kashmir day and is a national holiday. We shut down businesses and suffer loss of GDP. Does celebrating Kashmir Day or shutting down businesses help the Kashmir cause or the Kashmiris?
Pakistan has always sought to involve the international community, including the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) in forcing India to talk about Kashmir and agree to a plebiscite as per the UNSC resolutions of the late 1940s-early 1950s. However, the last time the UNSC demanded a resolution was in 1957. That was before most Pakistanis were born!!!
The United States to whom we looked for years to force India to listen to us has stated that what had happened in Kashmir is an internal matter.
Pakistan’s rulers claim that the country is not isolated and we have friends and allies in the world who support our stand on Kashmir and India. Well we learned this week who are on our side: our brother Muslim country UAE has supported India, our South Asian neighbors – Sri Lanka, Maldives, Bangladesh – have come out on India’s side and even China’s protest has to do with the territory of Kashmir it claims – Ladakh – not with our aims!
The one place where a resolution was passed on Kashmir was in our own National Assembly. What good are resolutions if they only reflect our outrage at ourselves?
What have we as Pakistan done for the Kashmir cause aside from using it to claim that we are a champion of Muslim causes? There we should look within and ask why we keep quiet about the Uyghurs or our own Baloch and Pashtun brethren!
What have we as the Pakistani state done for the Kashmiri people aside from supporting terrorism that has only ended up hurting them, their cause and their struggle?
Either we should be able to convince the world about our stand or we should let Kashmiris decide their own actions rather than being dictated from Rawalpindi.
