Dodgy declaration

South Asia has been here before. Several embattled leaders in the Subcontinent have used the foreign hand card to stay on in power. In Prime Minister Khan’s telling, the story is that a “powerful foreign country”, which he also identified as the United States, is behind the Opposition’s moves to remove him from office, because this foreign power does not want Pakistan to have an independent foreign policy. Khan was sure to go if the no confidence vote had been permitted. The Opposition was present in the National Assembly in strength, and would have been able to muster the numbers required to win the motion. However, it is doubtful if even after all this, Khan can stay on. There is a question mark over the legality of his decisions today. The Supreme Court of Pakistan has taken suo motu cognisance of the matter, including if a prime minister already facing a no confidence motion can dissolve Parliament and call an election.

Whichever way the verdict goes, it seems as if the ultimate resolution of this political showdown does lie in an election. Until then, Pakistan seems set for a prolonged period of political uncertainty. In the midst of all this, it is yet too early to arrive at definite conclusions about the significance of the remarks of the Pakistan Army chief, General Qamar Javed Bajwa, that Islamabad wants to resolve the Kashmir issue through dialogue and diplomacy, particularly as his outreach seemed to indicate that the India-China border dispute and the Kashmir issue are linked. However, as he pointed out, and as has been stated by Indian Army chief General M M Naravane as well, the Line of Control is quiet after the two armies arrived at an agreement last year reaffirming their commitment to the 2003 ceasefire. This gives hope that once matters settle down in Pakistan, there can be some forward movement in a relationship that has been frozen for far too long.