ALI SUKHANVER

The Sunday Guardian Live published a ‘story’ on 21^st August which claimed that the New Zealand cricket team’s tour of Pakistan was under “a terror threat with an imminent possibility of the touring cricketers being attacked by one of the many terror groups active in the volatile region.” According to the reports, this Indian media outlet is owned by MJ Akbar who had served as Minister of State for External Affairs between July 2016 and October 2018 under Narendra Modi. He is still an active member of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party. Unfortunately rather disappointingly the New Zealand cricket team called off its tour of Pakistan, just a few minutes before the first match was supposed to begin. The government of New Zealand said this cancellation of the tour was simply because of the so-called ‘security-threat’. The honourable Prime Minister of Pakistan personally made a call to Jacinda Ardern, the Prime Minister of New Zealand and assured her that the reports regarding security threats were baseless rather fake and that the security of the New Zealand team was assigned to Pakistan Army and Pakistan’s premier intelligence agency but to Jacinda the report of Sunday Guardian Live was more trust-worthy.

It is no doubt a very important question how MJ Akbar had come to know of this terror threat and what was his source of information but one thing is very much clear that MJ Akbar has close linkage with the planners of that expected ‘Terrorists’ Attack’. Unbelievably,  it is also something astonishing that Pakistan’s premier intelligence agency the ISI also could not smell the expected ‘terror-attack’ on the New Zealand team, pointed out by MJ Akbar though the ISI is ranked among the world’s top five best intelligence agencies. It means that the Indian journalist was in continuous contact with the planners and they had complete confidence in him. Whatever be the reality, this incident has directly damaged the image of Jacinda Ardern who had won a lot of true love from the Muslims all over the world after the Christ Church incident. Certainly this non-professional behavior of the New Zealand Cricket team organizers would damage the popularity of Jacinda Ardern which had reached its climax in Muslim countries after the Christ Church Massacre.

After the Christ Church massacre, as far as Jacinda’s sympathetic and caring attitude with the Muslims is concerned, that was simply a political gimmickry. As country’s Prime Minister, it was her duty to pacify the situation and calm down the people. Moreover she wanted to covey a soft image of her country to the world around especially to the Muslim world. Some of the social media users are of the opinion that the New Zealand players were lacking talent and fitness and they were frightened of their expected defeat at the hands of the Pakistani players; that is why this whole story was concocted. It is also very unfortunate that following the foot-marks of Jacinda Ardern, the England Cricket team has also cancelled its expected tour to Pakistan though on the other hand England has removed the name of Pakistan from the Red-List of the countries suffering badly from the Covid-19.

The fact of the matter is that refusal of New Zealand and England regarding playing in Pakistan is not a personal or individual act of any of these countries; this all seems a part of a well organized and carefully managed move to defame and malign Pakistan but facing such type of hostile moves is nothing new to Pakistan. From the demand of ‘Do More’ to the allegation of ‘Doing Nothing’, the tale of hurdles in Pakistan’s way to progress and economic stability is very long. The world around has always tried all the best to minimize the important role of Pakistan in world affairs particularly in affairs relevant to the South Asia but Pakistan was always there and still there on the scene and behind the scene.

After the death of the great leader of the Illegally Indian Occupied Kashmir Syed Ali Shah Geelani, a few weeks back, Masarat Alam Bhat was appointed the new chairman of All Parties Hurriyat Conference who  had already been leading the Hurriyat Conference during the illness-days of Late Syed Ali Shah Geelani. His permanent appointment as the Chairman All Parties Hurriyat Conference was warmly welcomed by Kashmiris and their friends all over the world. But at the same time his appointment proved a thorn in the flesh for those who always dream of keeping the Kashmiris chained down. Different Hindu extremist groups started a well-organized media campaign against Masarat Alam Bhatt. It was propagated that Masarat Alam Bhat was a candidate introduced and inducted by Pakistan’s intelligence agencies. Though that defaming campaign could not last longer but the Hindu extremists did try their best to create an air of distrust and confusion and generate hatred against Pakistan. Same approach about Pakistan was observed when the Taliban took charge of Afghanistan. The Indian and the US media tried to spread this baseless conception that Pakistan was the Master-Mind of bringing Taliban into the government though Pakistan had nothing to do in Afghanistan’s internal affairs.

Neither in the Indian Occupied Kashmir nor in Afghanistan has Pakistan ever interfered; Pakistan has always desired for peace leading to prosperity in both the areas. Pakistan’s only concern has been the basic human rights of the people of Afghanistan and of Illegally Indian Occupied Kashmir and for this purpose Pakistan has always raised its voice at every platform. Obviously this desire and concern has added a lot to the number of forces hostile to Pakistan. Recently Pakistan’s visually impaired diplomat Saima Saleem also pointed towards the same desire in her speech at the United Nations General Assembly. She is the first lady diplomat who presented her country’s point of view on Kashmir issue on such a sublime platform by using Braille. She said, India remains in occupation of an internationally recognized disputed territory whose final disposition needs to be decided in accordance with the democratic principle of a free and impartial plebiscite under UN auspices, as provided for under numerous resolutions of the Security Council.”  The fact of the matter is that Pakistan has never been interested in doing any interference in formation of government in Illegally Indian Occupied Kashmir or in Afghanistan or in selection or elections of political parties’ heads but at the same time Pakistan would never compromise on peace and prosperity of Afghanistan and the Illegally Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir.