Prime Minister of Pakistan Nawaz Sharif spoke at the United Nations today. Here are brief comments on his speech that are both positives and negatives. Positives of the speech: 1. Despite pressure from India, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif took a strong stand on Kashmir conflict. He outlined the legitimacy of Pakistan’s rights and the human rights violation committed by Indian armed forces. 2. He demanded democratization of UN Security Council which is important. 3. He outlined the social priorities of his government including introduction of universal healthcare and economic progress through trade rather than aid. 4. On Syrian crisis government of Pakistan has taken the correct position that sovereignty and integrity of Syria should be respected. He also requested Syrian government and opposition to engage in talks to resolve issues rather than resort to violence. 5. He outlined the foreign policy priority of his government will be to introduce peace and stability in the region. Negatives of the speech: 1. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif spoke for 42 seconds on drone strikes. He did not use the words “violation of sovereignty”. He did not give any account of humanitarian tragedy resulting from collateral damage which consequently produces extremism. He did not request the world body to support the resolution being drafted by Pakistan to create an international platform against uncontrolled use of drones. He did not sought compensation for people that are affected by these drone strikes. 2. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif assured the world community that Pakistan wants a peaceful and stable Afghanistan without preference towards any particular group. He said that Pakistan is against outside intervention in Afghanistan and will work with all groups to achieve peace. He said that Afghan peace process should be “Afghan lead and Afghan owned”. I have an issue with this. Pakistan has sacrificed 40,000 people and an estimated US$100 billion loss to economy because of Afghan crisis. This makes us a stakeholder in the Afghan issue. We should promote creation of an international platform which is created by Afghanistan in collaboration with Pakistan and USA. This platform should seek support of China, Russia, Turkey, European Union, Iran and Saudi Arabia for post-2014 Afghanistan that has a stable economy and sustainable social structure. Pakistan should be given an opportunity to participate in the reconstruction of Afghanistan as well as training of its armed forces. 3. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif also missed an opportunity to seek the support of world community that the sacrifices of Pakistan should be realized in the war on terror. He also did not seek support that Pakistan is blamed for terror incidents in which no creditable evidence is provided by the accuser. 4. As the second largest country of the Muslim block Prime Minister of Pakistan failed to inform the world community that most of the conflicts in the world today involve a Muslim country. But Muslims do not have an adequate presence in the UN Security Council to speak on their behalf. African and South American continents have similar grievance. These could damage the viability of UN in the long run if not resolved through reorganization of UN Security Council. Bottom line is that it was a weak speech that lacked substance and did not presented the case of Pakistan effectively.
Posted on: Fri, 27 Sep 2013 18:24:31 +0000
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