Leaders’ purblindness or policy of blind trust

Caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar has termed the Pak-China friendship a heavenly relationship and noted that Pakistan blindly trusted China and Islamabad would not allow anything to undermine its bilateral strategic partnership with Beijing. During a meeting, Prime Minister Kakar told Chinese President Xi Jinping that Pakistan firmly supports the One China policy and would demonstrate its faith through actions, not mere words and would not take an inch back when it comes to Pakistan’s ties with China.

The People’s Republic of China has convened a successful third Belt and Road Forum (BRF) to mark a decade of the magnificent Chinese Belt and Road Initiative, which advertised Xi’s vision around the globe. During his landmark speech to the world leaders at the forum, President Xi put forth a Chinese version of the new world order that not only offers the world nations vast prospects for physical connectivity through the BRI but also presents equal economic and trade opportunities to countries located in the adjoining territories alongside the modern silk route. Because of its unique geostrategic location, geographical proximity and longstanding partnership with Bejing, Pakistan is one of those countries that are the biggest beneficiaries of the Chinese modern economic model. China’s Belt and Road Initiative is a well thought and practical solution to the US-led Western political, economic and civilisational module that has become unaffordable and challenging for many nations in the world, as the West has made a mockery of fundamental human rights, democracy and global conventions in pursuit of its strategic objectives worldwide.

Historically, China invited all regional and extra-regional states including the US, the EU and their regional ally India to partner in all economic, trade and technological projects under the Belt and Road Initiative to achieve shared objectives and collective growth. So far Beijing has not offered any extraordinary incentives for Islamabad in respect of the BRI or its subsidiary China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). Beijing has lavishly invested in Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, and the CARs together with several other nations in multiple regions from Mali to Djibouti and Maldive to the Solomon Islands to enhance its core objectives whilst Pakistan is the most crucial nation that acts like a fulcrum/force multiplier in Bejing’s strategic economic and military agendas in the region and beyond. Therefore, the purblind Pakistani leaders must have a clear appreciation of their country’s worth and a thorough evaluation of other nations’ interests so they bargain with the world instead of trading their country for peanuts or pounds in a display of self-blindness or imaginary faith.

Historically, Pakistani leaders mostly failed to identify their national interests and made high hopes from friendly countries that often remained unfulfilled throughout history. Hence, the distasteful wait for the US sixth fleet in 1971 to a potential incursion by the PLA into Kashmir during the Kargil conflict, together with seeking strategic depth in Afghanistan to expect support from Muslim nations against India, all policy assertions were mistaken and the fault of Pakistani Strategists and policymakers, that cost a huge price to our nation in the past decades.

Historically, statesmanship and leadership do not come as a family heirloom in a democratic nation; rather it comes after yearslong politics and service to the nation. Similarly, global diplomacy and foreign relations always move on to the core interests of the nation rather than the like, dislike or political affiliation of the ruling elites. Pakistan has suffered unbelievably from wrong priorities of its leadership and misjudgement of its policymakers, who brought about fresh crises after each catastrophe ranging from the partnership in the Cold War to Afghan jihad, and patron ship of the Taliban movement to participation in the global War on Terror (WoT). Currently, an unelected government with limited powers is solely taking long-term policy decisions relating to the national economy, foreign relations, defence and national security and continuously insisting on self-extended rule along with self-imposed blindness. The public urges them to keep enjoying foreign trips on taxpayers’ money till their tenure ends but resist muddling into sensitive policy matters without due authority.