If there was ever a perfect example of utter humiliation then Imran Khan’s visit to the USA perfectly fits the bill for the same. Right from the start, every move that Imran Khan made has massively backfired and his speeches have provided some much needed comic relief as he continues to make a fool of himself. His desperate attempts on internationalising the Kashmir issue continues to fall on deaf ears and the success of Prime Minister Modi’s ‘Howdy, Modi’ event has caused some serious heartburn in Pakistan.
Prime Minister Modi was given a red carpet welcome upon his arrival as the US officials made a beeline at the airport to receive him whereas Imran Khan received a red doormat welcome as the Trump administration did not deem it fit to send officials to receive Imran Khan. Pakistan representative to the United Nations Maleeha Lodhi inadvertently embarrassed Imran Khan as she laid down the red doormat to welcome Khan, who himself came on a plane loaned to him by the Saudi Crown Prince. Lodhi continued to embarrass Khan as she addressed UK PM Boris Johnson as the ‘Foreign Minister of UK’.
Imran Khan had tried his best to sabotage the ‘Howdy Modi’ event and despite Pakistan running short of funds, it thought it was absolutely necessary to finance the staged protests against Prime Minister Modi’s visit as direct links between the protest organisers and Imran Khan have been established. Pakistan has now become synonymous with failure and true to its characteristics it failed yet again as PM Modi’s event was a rousing success which sent shivers down the spine of Imran Khan. It seems that all the austerity measures like that of selling buffaloes have yielded little money and whatever little money was gained has been flushed down the drain by Khan.
Even as 60,000 attended the event in a historic show of support for any leader in the USA, as if to rub salt on Imran Khan’s wounds, Pashtuns, Sindhis and Baloch people were also at the ‘Howdy, Modi’ event to extend support to Modi and seek Modi and Trump’s help against Pakistani atrocities. Hence, the Pakistan sponsored protests were dumbed down by even bigger protests against Pakistan, with legitimate victims of the Pakistani state’s atrocities.
Just when we thought that Imran Khan’s visit couldn’t have been more disastrous, he managed to surprise one and all as in an interview Imran Khan admitted that Pakistan Army ISI trained Al-Qaeda & other terrorists and even admitted that the army has links with heinous terrorists. India couldn’t believe its luck as Imran Khan went on a full self-destruct mode as the clamours for Pakistan’s blacklisting by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) will only grow after Khan’s statement as the FATF are slated to meet next month.
During the bilateral meeting with the USA, Imran Khan sat with lost hope given the Afghan peace talks dumped by Donald Trump, and the grand ‘Howdy, Modi’ event just the night before, that Trump could not stop gushing about even with Imran Khan next to him.
Increasingly isolated and bereft of any ideas, Imran Khan met the editorial board of The New York Times to help him further Pakistan’s nefarious propaganda. The NYT has been carrying pieces sympathetic to Pakistan since the past few months and even allowed Khan a platform to blackmail the world on the threat of a nuclear war if India’s ‘aggression’ wasn’t checked. The NYT is determined to give tough competition to the likes of Dawn and the Tribune as the troika jostle to spread Pakistan’s propaganda. Imran Khan’s maiden address at the United Nations General Assembly was derided from all quarters but comically, the NYT termed his address as ‘emotional’ as Khan yet again threatened the world over the possibility of a nuclear war.
Imran Khan’s maiden address to the UNGA is a case study of not how to give an address as Khan like an immature boy continued to rant for 50 minutes beyond the stipulated time of 15-20 minutes. Not only did he not adhere to the time limit, but he also indulged in hate speech and made several gaffes as he said things like ‘we will fight till the end’, threatened that ‘more Muslims will be radicalised’, ‘there will be bloodshed’, all which was extremely unbecoming of a leader of a nation, and made him indistinguishable from any other radicalised terrorist. While Imran Khan was obsessed with PM Modi, Hindus, RSS and mentioned Kashmir and Allah in almost every sentence of his speech, Prime Minister Modi oozed class by completely ignoring Imran Khan and his antics as if he was unaware of Khan’s existence. Imran Khan laid bare the underpinnings of his psyche, and it is a speech that will be recalled to bring shame to Pakistan every time it attempts to win the world’s trust.
Imran Khan faced further humiliation when a calm and composed Vidisha Maitra destroyed Imran Khan’s speech point by point without doing as little as standing up. Her questions immediately debunked Imran Khan’s rant at the UNGA.
“What we heard today from PM of Pakistan was a callous portrayal of the world in binary terms. Us vs Them, Rich vs Poor, North vs South, Developed Vs Developing, Muslims vs Others. A script that fosters divisiveness at the United Nations. Attempts to sharpen differences and stir up hatred, are simply put, hate speech.” said Maitra, calling out the cricketer-turned-puppet politician. “While Pakistan has ventured to upstream terrorism and downstream hate speech there, India is going ahead with mainstreaming development in Jammu and Kashmir,” she said, giving it back to the PTI leader whose agenda topic reads only one point and that is Kashmir.
In this composed but scathing speech, Vidisha Maitra, first secretary of MEA dissected and debunked Imran Khan’s hateful rhetoric. Maitra remarked that, “Imran Khan’s threat of unleashing nuclear devastation qualifies as brinksmanship, not statesmanship”. One of the most interesting points was when she mentioned Lt. Gen A. A. Khan Niazi of the Pakistan army who butchered thousands during the 1971 war and whom Imran Khan ‘Niazi’ is known to be related to. Vidisha Maitra called out the hateful rhetoric used by Imran Khan, which is unbecoming of a Prime Minister, and also reminded Pakistan of its persecution of minorities and its patronage of terrorists.
The atrocities committed by Pakistan in Bangladesh has not been forgotten and to add to Imran Khan’s embarrassment Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina reminded Pakistan in her UNGA speech that it was the Pakistan Military who started the 1971 genocide which ended up killing over 3 million people.
Hasina was quoted: “In the 1971 war of liberation, we endured an extreme form of genocide. In the nine-month-long war of liberation against Pakistan, three million innocent people were killed and more than 2,00,000 women were violated. The Pakistan military launched the heinous ‘Operation Searchlight’ on 25 March, which was the beginning of the 1971 genocide. The 1971 genocide included targeted elimination of individuals on the grounds of religion, race and political belief. The intellectuals were killed brutally.”
No one wanted to be left behind to humiliate Pakistan and now it was the turn of the USA as Alice Wells, US acting assistant secretary for South and Central Asia slammed Imran Khan’s silence on the plight of Uyghurs in China. Calling out Imran Khan’s hypocrisy and indicating that the USA can see trough his rants, Alice Wells was quoted “I would like to see the same level of concern expressed about Muslims who are being detained in Western China, literally in concentration-like conditions. And so being concerned about the human rights of Muslims does extend more broadly than Kashmir, and you’ve seen the administration very involved here during the UN General Assembly and trying to shine a light on the horrific conditions that continue to exist for Muslims throughout China.”
Imran Khan continued to unravel himself during his US visit and managed to expose himself and the Pakistan Military. Imran Khan acted like an Indian agent in disguise throughout his visit and as if to rub salt into his wounds, the private jet loaned to Imran Khan developed technical snag and had to return from the Kennedy Airport and take a commercial flight a day later. Perhaps even the Saudi Crown Prince did not want to be left behind in humiliating Imran Khan and Pakistan.