A few weeks after Taliban’s takeover of Kabul, Afghanistan on 15 August 2021, Pakistan’s selected Prime Minister Imran Khan praised the Taliban victory as ‘breaking the shackles of slavery’. Pakistani pro-Taliban groups and Pakistani media termed the victory of Taliban as the victory of Islam! But is this really a victory of Pakistan, or it’s the beginning of its downfall?
Let us look at some key points to assess the situation.
1.Shadow of Taliban
After the victory of Taliban’s (Big Brother) in Afghanistan and the implementation of Shariah law in the occupied country, the Taliban’s younger brother Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has begun demanding the implementation of Sharia law within Pakistan.
Pakistan, at its core, is a fundamentalist/radical Islamist ideological country that sponsors terrorism. However, Pakistan shows to the world that it is a progressive and secular country and it officially denies enforcing Shariah law in the country. This is a charade.
Now at this time when the Taliban is becoming stronger in the region, they are putting pressure on Pakistan to impose Shariah law failing which Pakistan will face severe consequences.
2. BRI (Belt and Road Initiative) & CPEC (China-Pakistan Economic Corridor)
China’s multi-billion investment (read loans) in Pakistan on BRI and CPEC projects is on very high interest rates. Recent attacks by TTP on CPEC project is a clear indication of their motives. Due to this fight between Pakistan and Islamist TTP, expansionist CCP’s (China’s Communist Party) ambition are getting sandwiched, which is slowing the progress on CPEC projects. China has stopped injecting more money into Pakistan’s economy. Although Pakistan continues to offer amnesty to TTP leadership and is begging them to stop attacks on CPEC projects, yet TTP is loud and clear on their demand of Sharia law implementation in Pakistan.
China, of course, is trying its best to solve this problem. Recently Beijing threatened Pakistan government that if TTP is not handled by Pakistan then China will carry out attacks against the TTP on Pakistan’s soil by themselves. This situation can make Pakistan surrender to the TTP’s demands and officially implement shariah law in Pakistan. If not, then Pakistan and China will suffer at the hands of their own Frankenstein monster–Taliban.
3. Unsafe Pakistan
Pakistan is infamous for its gross human rights violations, sexual assault on women and children and human trafficking. Pakistan routinely persecutes the religious minorities on its soil and has become an unsafe place to live in.
4. Regional Freedom Movements
Pakistan is an unnatural country that was created on the basis of ‘Two Nation Theory’ and on false ideology. This theory has already been proved false in 1971 when East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) left Pakistan. Now the struggle for self-determination by Sindh, Balochistan and Pashtunistan is putting strains on Islamabad. These historic nations are chained to slavery to the Panjabi Pakistan in the name of federal government. Panjabi Pakistan’s atrocities and exploitation of the national resources of enslaved historical nations continues to grow every day. The sentiment over national identity crisis is increasing everyday.
5- National political crisis
After ‘winning the election’, Imran Khan, PTI Chairman took oath as selected Prime Minister of Pakistan. From day one since he sat on the PM’s chair, Imran Khan said that all opposition political parties’ leaders would be punished for their crime of looting Pakistan’s money over the last seventy years. Due to his harsh statements, which continues till today, all opposition parties that practice, believe and take part in Pakistan’s electoral politics are treated as enemies. Due to this situation Pakistan is going through a critical political crisis internally. A clear division is seen all the time even on Pakistan’s national issues and interests.
6. FATF (Sword of Damocles)
The FATF (Financial Action Task Force) is the Sword of Damocles that has been hanging over Pakistan’s head since long. Pakistan is currently on FATF’s grey list and has been warned that lack of compliance with international regulations on terror financing will result in the country being downgraded to the black list. Only Iran and North Korea are currently blacklisted. Blacklisting by FATF will isolate Pakistan financially by severely impacting its borrowing credentials.
Pakistan is the only country in the world that hosts thousands of terrorists, runs terrorist training camps for global jihadis and has an army that openly controls many of these terrorist groups and carries out terrorist attacks against sovereign nations.
7. Other international developments
(A) AUKUS agreement signals a paradigm shift in strategy and policy across the region. Although the USA, UK and Australia (AUKUS members) have said in a statement that the agreement is not about confronting the CCP.
(B) QUAD meeting visit by the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the US this month during the UNGA session in New York USA. This meeting is also important regarding the presence of USA in Asia.
(C) In US Congress, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that the US would assess its ties with Pakistan and Afghanistan, after hard questions were asked to him by at least four Congressmen about the future of Afghanistan. These Congressmen criticized Pakistan’s role in the war against terrorism.
(D) Presence of Israeli submarines equipped with nuclear weapons (unconfirmed) in Middle East waters to control trade routes to Asia. USA, Australia, EU, Japan, India and Arab countries are together on such operations.
(E) In the 20th Shanghai Cooperation Council summit, Pakistan’s PM asked for help from member countries to invest in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan. The main stakeholder China is also willing to help to complete the BRI project by supporting the Taliban.
(F) While Pakistan’s economy is collapsing, the value of dollar is increasing, and Pakistan’s debt is at its peak.
(G) Recently on 27 September, 22 Republican Senators moved a bill in the US Senate that seeks to assess Pakistan’s alleged role in Afghanistan before and after the fall of Kabul and during the Taliban offensive in Panjshir Valley, amid a widely spread social media campaign worldwide hash tagged #SanctionPakistan.
Pakistan has been completely isolated and is left with only a few friends internationally. There are only few survival options left with the Panjabi Pakistan.