Diplomatic inertia

This time the US and its allies move asking Financial Action Task Force FATF) to back Pakistan on of watch list of money laundering and terror financing has created a panic like situation in the PML-N government. There was not such a hue and cry when the country was put for the first time on this list in 2012. The reason was that previous PPP government launched a silent diplomacy spearheaded by the charismatic and very articulate foreign minster Mohtarama Hina Rabbani Khar. The incumbent foreign minister is not that articulate as his predecessor used to be.

Surprisingly, the Us move came just four days after the visit of the Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal to the United States in which he held discussions with the Deputy Secretary of State Jhon Sullivan and a number of  Senators and members of House of Representatives.  The infuriated Interior Minster said on Monday that US move of putting back Pakistan on FATF terror financing l watch-list is an attempt to destabilize the economy of the country. The same stereotype reaction was earlier given by the spokesperson of foreign office. However, the Foreign Minister himself has not responded on this development. State Minister for Finance Rana Muhammad Afzal described it an effort to dent the credibility of Pakistan in the international community, which is not fair. The issue needs direct engagement with the united states at diplomatic level but the government is looking up to China, Saudi Arabia and Turkey to exert their leverage on the United States to help out Pakistan.

It is the diplomatic inertia deliberately created by the former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif that now international community has accepted Indian narrative against Pakistan. He did not appoint foreign minister for four years and preferred to play a second fiddle role in the international arena viz-aviz India.   To give credence to Indian narrative a fabricated news story maligning an important state institution was attributed to a high level meeting chaired by the former Prime Minister, the ‘Dawn leaks.’ This is what our enemies whished for. No doubt China is major international player but it can buttress Pakistan’s diplomatic efforts only when the government initiates them and cannot itself perform the entire role of fire fighting and trouble shooting for Pakistan for making its soft image at a time when the Pakistan’s Defense Minister gave a dialogue offer to the United States in an undiplomatic tone in his policy statement in the upper house of the parliament. Did he forget the diplomatic fiasco in the wake blocking NATO supply to Afghanistan after Sala attack?

One may ask if the present government’s repeated claims of economic gains are true then why placing Pakistan on FATF watch-list is construed a great destabilizing factor for the economy. Does the PML-N government want to use this issue as a smokescreen to hide the economic mess they created over the past four and half years which is reflected in a current account deficit of more than $ 12 billion and $ 90 billion foreign debt?  Pakistan had remained on the FATF watch-list 2012-15 but no such panic was shown at that time. The fact of the matter is that the economy has been mercilessly messed up by the present government.  Former Finance Minister Dr Hafiz Pasha has cautioned the government that the United States could anytime slap economic sanctions on Pakistan, though it has so for not got enough support from the international community. “We are left with limited options and I am afraid the situation can go out of hand if the US slaps sanctions on us, “warned the renounced economist. He said the Constitution allows proclamation of financial emergency under Article-235. This is how we may deal with US sanctions.

The former finance minister has urged the government to tackle the twin deficit including current account deficit by imposing tariff and non-tariff restrictions on imports and budgetary deficit by stopping the release of billions of rupees to law makers of the ruling and allied parties in the garb of development funds to win the next general elections. The present government has always turned a deaf year to sane advices from the independent economists and multilateral donor agencies and it does not seem likely that this time the government will show some sagacity. The looming large possibility of diplomatic isolation and financial crisis can be averted with proactive diplomacy and prudent financial management.