Historically, Pakistan has always been obsequiously disposed towards the status quo in the Middle East and North Africa, earning in return the indifference of the Arab masses to many of its critical international positions on crucial foreign policy issues.
As a matter of extra circumspection, often misplaced, advised by its diplomats, Pakistan generally lags behind the rest of the world in welcoming the changes that the Arab nation ushers in. By the time, it makes up its mind and announces the recognition of the new order the people in a certain Arab society have brought about it, is late. The most plausible reason behind this slackness, according to Nazar Abbas, a former ambassador to Libya, is Pakistan's "deference to kings".
When Palestinians rallied under the PLO and Yasser Arafat emerged as their effective leader, recognised by many members of the international community, "we refused him to open office in Pakistan". Ambassador Abbas also mentions how Pakistan chose to fight on the side of King Hussein to help crush the Palestinians, sided with King Hasan of Morocco against Mauritania over Western Sahara and even preferred to support non-entities in South Africa instead of Nelson Mandela.
Isn't it a cruel joke that when freedom-loving people all over the world and their governments are announcing the recognition of the interim government led by the National Transitional Council, Pakistan is undecided? Why is Pakistan dragging its feet in recognising the popular will of the Libyan people?
Till Saturday forenoon, when these lines were written there was no sign of Pakistan having accorded recognition to the new setup as the legitimate government of Libya. According to the Foreign Office spokesperson, Tehmina Janjua, "We are monitoring the situation very closely. Our diplomatic mission in Tripoli is fully operational".
"We believe that at this point in time the situation is influx. So we continue to monitor the situation...", she said - as if no one in the embassy has a television set to see the rebels in total control of the Qadhafi compound. There is no reason for Pakistan to delay its recognition of the NTC government unless, to quote Ambassador Nazar Abbas, Pakistan is "weighed down by the apprehensions of our 'Royal friends' that our support to the Arab Spring would threaten their thrones".
Also, we have to accept the fact that the departure of Colonel Qadhafi is a fait accompli, and in future we would have to deal with the new rulers of Libya. If the Libyan embassy has raised the new flag and not informed our Foreign Office we should ask ourselves why so; is it that the embassy nurtures negative opinion about Pakistan's approach to the revolution in Libya?
Given, that Pakistan has thousands of workers gainfully employed in Libya, it is all the more necessary that the interim government in Tripoli receives our prompt recognition. Even earlier, during the civil war/revolt in Libya, Pakistan's public posture was largely pro-Qadhafi as our mission believed, wrongly, that the dictatorial regime would succeed in weathering the storm. Now that it has not, we should lose no time and promptly announce recognition of the NTC-led setup as Libya's legitimate government.