‘A plethora of issues’

This is apropos a Business Recorder op-ed “A plethora of issues” carried by the newspaper on Tuesday. The writer, Rashed Rahman, has argued, among other things, that “Pakistan needs reasonable, if not good relations with all its neighbours at a moment when it has so many other problems to contend with.

Relations with Iran are on the mend after the mutual strikes on each other and the start on the Pakistan side of the much delayed Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline that threatened their bonhomie. With India, relations remain frozen, with little chance of even normal diplomatic outreach till after the Indian elections.”

In my view, however, IP gas pipeline project is dead in the water owing to a variety of reasons, including stiff but consistent US opposition to this mega energy project originating from Iran.

Let me take the liberty to state that Pakistan’s relations with Iran are not on the mend per se.

In hindsight, the attack on Gawadar Port Authority Complex on Wednesday in which eight terrorists were killed suggests that the relations between Pakistan and Iran that received a setback following an Iranian incursion into Pakistan’s Balochistan a couple of months ago and retaliatory strikes into Iran’s Sistan-Balochistan province by Pakistan are characterized by tensions and mutual distrust.

That the Baloch insurgents have safe havens in both Iran and Afghanistan is a fact. Needless to say, Afghanistan has become increasingly belligerent towards Pakistan in recent weeks and months. It has been continuously and unabashed providing sustenance and shelter to Tehrik e Taliban Pakistan (TTP) terrorists.

The attackers who were neutralized by our armed forces at the Gwadar Port Authority Complex must have been enjoying blessings of India and Afghanistan. Insofar as upcoming scheduled general elections in India are concerned, BJP has already brightened its electoral prospects in recent weeks through a raft of steps that are essentially aimed at further marginalizing Muslims and appeasing far right Hindu voters in particular.

So any improvement in Pakistan-India relations after India’s April-June 2024 elections is unlikely. It is a grim reality that Pakistan has so many hostile neighbours that are unlikely to become its good neighbours and ultimately good friends.

Behzad Mengal (Quetta)

Copyright Business Recorder, 2024