INDIAN obsession with securing a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) and wooing the US for even closer strategic ties with the US know no bounds and India is willing to sacrifice even its traditional allies to achieve these ends. The Manmohan Singh Government’s decision to vote against Iran at last month’s crucial meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is one such example. India’s support to the U.S.-led “provocative” resolution on Iran is one of the biggest foreign policy “blunders” of the government and warned that it could not afford to commit more such mistakes. India may sell its mother for achieving its ambitions but what is provoking Pakistan to sell-out its sovereignty and independence to become subservient to Indian aspirations? The cauldron of Kashmir is likely to boil over due to Indian intransigence. The lives of innocent Kashmiris are being sacrificed everyday at the altar of Indian brutality. Pakistan is continuously being blamed for supporting terrorism in India. The efforts by Indian diplomacy and media to blackball Pakistan, have it declared a terrorist state and an international pariah has become a total fixation. Yet Pakistan’s permanent representative to the UN, Abdullah Hussain Haroon, instead of blocking the Indian move to secure a permanent seat at the UNSC, is providing unequivocal support to the Indian ambition. Abdullah Hussain Haroon created ripples along with his Indian counterpart Hardeep Singh Puri in the Big Apple’s diplomatic scene recently when they appeared together at the US Open to cheer the so-called “Indo-Pak Express” of tennis players — Rohan Bopanna and Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi. The duo is being referred to as “the inseparable twins”, which is unusual keeping in view the animosity between the two nuclear equipped neighbours. Recently, at a reception hosted by the Indian Ambassador to the UN to honour visiting India’s Minister of External Affairs, S. M. Krishna, not only did Abdullah Haroon grace the occasion but stayed full time, liberally giving interviews to every Indian TV Channel showering praise on his hosts.
In the earlier years, Pakistan sent middle-level diplomats from its mission for the Indian reception, who stayed a few minutes to register their presence and departed. Not only do “the inseparable twins” dine, wine and sup together, at times they travel together in the same car. This unnatural relationship is having a telling effect of Pakistan’s stand on core issues like the Kashmir conundrum. On 29 September, this year, S. M. Krishna, the Indian Foreign Minister made a scathing statement at the UN against Pakistan on Kashmir. In the rights-of-reply during the high level debate in the UNGA, following Krishna’s statement on Kashmir, Pakistani Envoy Hussain Haroon did not exercise his right of reply because it he would have had to say that Indians won’t like. Instead, he let a junior foreign office official do that job while he sat in the routine UNSC debate on Afghanistan, which was of trivial nature.The Daily Mail notes with serious concern that the Pakistan Peoples’ Party (PPP) and its founder, the fiery Zulfiquar Ali Bhutto had vehemently challenged Indian aspirations to gain permanent access to the UNSC, exposing Indian atrocities in Kashmir and its other human rights violations. In 1975, India sought UNSC membership, and Mr. Bhutto challenged Mrs. Gandhi’s move by putting Pakistan for the non-permanent seat. As an expert on multilateral diplomacy, Bhutto knew the UN thoroughly. He played his card brilliantly and with the able support of Agha Shahi and Iqbal Akhund, he overwhelmed India, which at that time was a leader in the 128-member Non-Aligned Movement (NAM). Now the same PPP has sunk to such lows, forgetting the brilliant traditions of its founder that instead of vehemently opposing Indian UNSC aspirations, Pakistan’s envoy to the UN and Zardari crony Abdullah Hussain Haroon is actually facilitating India – Dailymailnews
