Pakistan’s strategy to handle a more Muscular India

In the wake of Modi’s Diplomatic & military offensive the Pakistani government is working out a new strategy to take on India. A Pakistani senate committee has come out with a report with a list of suggestions for the Pakistani government on how to handle a more assertive and muscular India. The whole report can be found here.

The report starts with the usual Pakistani rants about condemning Indian atrocities, imaginary, against the people of Jammu & Kashmir, urging world community and UN to take action against India, condemns SAARC members and BIMSTEC to take a pro India position on terrorism and finally thanks Pakistan’s OIC and Chinese allies on their respective stand on Kashmir.

The Regional/Geopolitical context provides an overly optimistic picture of an otherwise increasingly Isolated Pakistan. Here the report suggests that while Pakistan is getting support from all over the world i.e China and some OIC countries, India is becoming increasingly isolated as more and more of its traditional allies like Russia and Iran are ditching it in favor of Pakistan. There are many ‘lies’ in the report, for example the report cleverly adds that Russo-Pak military exercises were held in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir and in Cherat, Khyber Pakuthwan while in reality, according to Russian government sources, the exercises were held only in Cherat, Khyber Pakuthwan.

The main part of the report is the ‘Policy guidelines’ which the Pakistani senate wants the government of Pakistan to adopt. Let’s examine these guidelines-

1. A task force be constituted for formulating a doable and sustainable India/Kashmir policy that should include the Chairs of Committees of both Houses on Defence and Foreign Affairs as well as representatives of the Foreign Office, Ministry of Defence and intelligence.
2. A Media Coordination Committee (MCC) be constituted including selected journalists plus representatives of the Foreign Office, Ministry of Information, parliament and intelligence to prepare fact sheets and a counter-propaganda campaign against India and to design and promote a media strategy for continually highlighting the Kashmiri freedom struggle.
3. There should be periodical/ regular special briefings for the Foreign Media and the social media should also be utilized for publicizing Jammu and Kashmir issue
4. Pakistan should re-establish a Public Diplomacy Office in the Foreign Office. This will function as the foreign office’s public diplomacy and soft power office and an interministerial space for projecting cultural, economic and trade outputs.
5. There is need to highlight the Indian intervention in Pakistan and in this context the arrest of serving Indian Navy Commander Kulbhushan Yadav should have been and should be raised at various important international forums along with the human rights violations in Indian held Kashmir.
6. The Government should hire International lobbyists and strategic communication firms and reactivate Pakistani community living abroad to change global narrative.”

The first six points stress on the need that Pakistan needs to change the narrative around the globe and counter India’s aggressive foreign policy under Modi. Pakistan needs to change its image from being a Hub of Jihadi terror to a victim of Jihadi terror.

Main thrust of our Kashmir Narrative should be:-

1. Violation of UN Charter chapter 1 article 1 and 2 by India which guarantee rights of self-determination.
2. Violation of international declaration of human rights in Kashmir by the India forces with highest population to soldiers ratio 1:5
3. Violation of Geneva Convention where prisoners and wounded have certain fundamental rights.
4. India violations along our eastern border will force Pakistan to pull troops employed to fight war on terror.
5. That the large number of marginalised youth in Jammu and Kashmir can be vulnerable to the incitement of extremist forces and trigger huge challenges for regional and global stability.”

The 7th point stresses that Pakistan needs to highlight the Kashmir issue against India more vigorously in the United Nations and other International and other international forums.

8. India’s own fault-lines in their alienated Muslims, Sikhs, Christians and Dalits as well as the growing Maoist insurgency be highlighted. In this context, services of two official think tanks whose principal task is to study India, the Islamabad Policy Research Institute (IPRI) and Institute of Regional Studies (IRS) can be attached to the relevant Committees of the Parliament. Modi and his RSS ideology of Hindutva should be targeted.

9. Comprehensive outreach to those segments of Indian public opinion which are opposed to Modi’s extremism and his anti-Pakistan policies including political parties, media, civil society organisations and human rights groups.”

However, the 8th & the 9th points of the article clearly states that the Pakistani state is in the process of adopting ISI’s overt covert strategy to create “fault-lines” within India and to achieve this objective they will actively seek help from elements within Indian society a.k.a the fifth column.

Some politicians, elements within the mainstream media, the NGO-Human Rights machine are already doing Pakistan’s bidding. For example, a certain mainstream politician from a certain political party openly declared on a Pakistani television that if you want peace between the two nations than you should remove Modi from Power and bring Congress back to power, the words ‘Humme, congress party, le aiye aur inhkho hatiye, BJP, were used.

Elements within the mainstream media are also trying to actively deny any Pakistani involvement with in Kashmir and are actively trying to build a narrative that the entire Kashmir problem exists because the youth of the region are frustrated by lack of jobs and opportunities. These media houses and journalist quietly avoid the question of Islamic radicalization and the active support which terrorist in Kashmir receive from Pakistan.

The NGO-Human rights machine not wanting to be left out started to spread fake stories of attacks on Christians and other minorities in India, efforts were made by many influential individuals and organizations to project Modi as a monster who bathes in the blood of Christians and Muslims.

The rest of the points highlight the same points as before, like how there is a need to highlight the Kashmir issue in various global forum and efforts should be made to turn international opinion against India.