French President Emmanuel Macron’s firm stance on fighting radical Islamist terrorism after the brutal attack on French citizens didn’t go well down the throats of Turkey’s President Erdogan and Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan. Both ‘democratically elected’ leaders falsely blamed Macron for promoting Islamophobia. Both countries also engaged in spewing hatred towards the French President and France in particular.
The notorious national assembly of Pakistan asked the Imran Khan government to recall its ambassador from France, but there was no one holding the post at the moment and it showed how mature and well aware the leadership of Pakistan is. Apart from warmongering in the name of religion in free countries and supporting other warmongering countries like Turkey and China, Pakistan seems to be playing no role in global politics. Esteemed Pakistani experts even came up with their favourite dialogue of using atomic weapons on France after years of saying the same thing against India.
But a fact to be noted is that no Pakistani missile can reach Paris, not even Shaheen 3, under any circumstance unless they are delivered using FedEx. There were several instances of ceremonial effigy burning across the country and the beheading of effigy which is the Islamic way of dealing with blasphemy of the Prophet. The citizens of Pakistan especially were at the forefront of spitting venom towards France.
Many journalists from Pakistan even went on to raise Jihadi slogans against the French President, calling all people from Islamic states to boycott French products. But unlike Turkey and Pakistan who sympathized with the attackers, the real convenors of the Islamic values, members of the Organisation for Islamic Cooperation bravely condemned the killing of the French teacher. Citizens of Saudi Arabia launched a massive campaign to boycott Turkish products and replace them with Greek ones.
But to what extent can Pakistan harm France through boycotting is a really important question. The extent is mostly French fries and French toasts, Pakistan can also boycott the rapid bus system in Peshawar which was built with help from France about 19.5 billion Pakistani rupees. Pakistan only stands to lose if it wants to boycott anything French. With India already enjoying the second shipment of Rafale jets, Pakistan can only sit back and pray for China and Turkey to come to its help. Pakistan can also try boycotting the French defence technology, such as French-made submarines of Daphene and Agosta class, which it bought second hand from Egypt along with Exocet missiles and Mirage fighter jets. But boycotting them will leave Pakistan only with a few copies of weapons made by its ‘Iron Brother’ China.
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Thus, the aggression shown by Pakistan has backfired. Macron’s strong resolve against Islamic terrorism and Saudi displeasure on Pakistan’s support to Erdogan as the leader of Ummah has already led Pakistan on a tough journey ahead. It is now paying for its old habit of punching way above its weight and it stands on the losing side as it has built another enemy in the form of mighty superpower France.