EDITORIAL: Following its battlefield success, Pakistan is now all set to counter India’s diplomatic manoeuvres through strategic engagement in world capitals and international forums.
A top-level Pakistani delegation, led by PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari and including former foreign minister Hina Rabbani Khar, ex-ambassadors to Washington Sherry Rehman and Jalil Abbas Jilani along with other key figures, will arrive in New York on June 1 to present Islamabad’s stance with respect to the ongoing dispute with India.
Similar missions are expected to follow in Canada and European capitals. Meanwhile, an Indian delegation is already actively lobbying in the US, while additional Indian teams are touring key global destinations, including Russia and the UAE to advocate New Delhi’s position.
It is imperative that Pakistan capitalises on its recent battlefield achievements and the diplomatic momentum gained through its effective communications strategy during the four-day conflict by countering hostile narratives. First and foremost, Islamabad must systematically expose the dangerous precedent of using baseless accusations to legitimise military adventurism.
Pakistan must again clearly reiterate — as it has consistently since the Pahalgam terror attack — its non-involvement in that reprehensible act.
There is a need to underscore how India’s persistent attempts to connect Pakistan with the Pahalgam incident reflect a disturbing pattern: the automatic, completely evidence-free attribution of terror attacks in India to Pakistan, followed by the cynical exploitation of these fabricated allegations to justify territorial violations.
Our diplomatic missions must highlight how India’s unwarranted aggression led to the killings of innocent civilians, including children, and stress that the international community cannot permit such violent border incursions under false pretences to become the norm.
Second, there is an urgent need to expose India’s dangerous obstructionism, where it has blocked conflict resolution by rejecting both bilateral engagement and third-party mediation. This stubborn refusal to engage in a meaningful dialogue isn’t principled policy; it boils down to raw coercion where India, in effect, demands that all issues be resolved strictly on its own terms or not at all.
Such contradictory posturing — wanting to maintain maximalist positions while avoiding meaningful engagement — reveals a government that wants to have its cake and eat it too. This approach becomes downright dangerous in a highly nuclearised region, home to one-fifth of humanity. When a major power refuses clear conflict-resolution mechanisms while simultaneously escalating tensions, it actively undermines global peace.
The international community must recognise that such erratic, hubristic behaviour in South Asia risks consequences far beyond our region.
Even after suffering military and diplomatic setbacks that exposed the futility of its aggression, India has persisted in vindictive measures rather than pursuing diplomatic off-ramps. Apart from sponsoring terrorism in Balochistan and backing TTP operations, it has persisted in its unlawful suspension of the Indus Waters Treaty, openly threatening to weaponise Pakistan’s water supply by choking off vital rivers.
Simultaneously, it has vowed to have Pakistan relisted on FATF’s grey list and has opposed our IMF programme. This reflects a broader strategy: to target Pakistan’s economic and agricultural lifelines when military confrontation fails. Our diplomatic response here must be swift, strategic and vigorous in exposing these actions for what they truly are: economic warfare masquerading as legitimate policy. Complacency here is not an option when India is seeking to cripple our financial stability through coercive means.
There is a need to communicate to the international community that at its core, this is about Kashmir — the unresolved dispute from which all other tensions flow. India must realise that no amount of military posturing or economic coercion will change this reality or end the unrest in the territory. Its refusal to engage in meaningful dialogue only sustains instability. Pakistan, for its part — despite India’s provocations — must stand ready for diplomatic engagement if and when our neighbour abandons its failed approach.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2025