New US Envoy To Pakistan Shows Dangerous Regime Co-Opting Terrorism Throughout The World FOR 2022
After Asad Majeed Khan’s three-year tenure finishes in January 2022, Pakistan announced that Sardar Masood Khan would replace him as its new ambassador to the United States.
As part of that small group of South Asian analysts who have been critical of American pandering to Pakistan despite the country’s demonstrated undermining of virtually every aspect of American national security in the region.
Others argue that his appointment demonstrates the irresponsible nature of the Pakistani regime, which is attempting to counteract Islamist movements around the world, including in the United States, who are co-opting and supporting them.
Who is Sardar Masood Khan?
Pakistan is still celebrating its victory over the United States by aiding the Taliban and their murderous allies. The Pakistan army may feel euphoric on one of the few victories the country can celebrate (apart from defeating its democracy).
It may also feel it can revivify its violently revisionist agenda towards India and Kashmir. Despite Pakistan’s determination to profit from its victory in Afghanistan, it has little hope of achieving its objectives if it forces a terrorist enthusiast on Washington.
An ex-diplomat from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (POK), he is a retired career diplomat. During Pakistan’s first Kashmir war of 1947-48, one of its former prime ministers, Nawaz Sharif, appointed him the 27th president of “Azad Kashmir,” that part of the state which Pakistan controls since it snatched the territory.
Until he retired in 2012, Mr Khan served twice as Pakistan’s ambassador to China (2008-12) and as Pakistan’s permanent representative at the United Nations in Geneva (2005-08). He served as president of POK shortly after retiring from the Pakistan Institute for Strategic Studies, a government-funded organization charged with disseminating briefs that align with or are dictated by the uniformed men that matter.
Sadly, I found no evidence that he was part of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor think-tank that Beijing and Islamabad launched jointly. Researchers and Developers International (RANDI) was appropriately named. It provided policymakers, students, specialists, scholars, and companies of both countries with perspectives, data, and information.
Pakistani journalist Ejaz Haider, a pro-army interlocutor in several media outlets, has criticized the selection on several grounds. He has already retired from international relations. In his view, it is similar to a retired army general accepting command of a battalion.
Two military chiefs have done this, though – former Army Chief General Jehangir Karamat from August 2004 to June 2006 and Air Chief Marshal Zulfiqar Ali Khan from July 1989 to September 1990. Previously, retired army generals at lower ranks have taken over the post. No one will be rousted from retirement to hold this enviable position for the first or last time.
It should not surprised that he has pro-China views, given that he is an ambassador to China. CPEC’s route to Afghanistan should be extended following the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan in October 2001. Similarly, Pakistan’s ambassadors to the United Nations in New York and Geneva continually bring up Pakistan’s myriad mendacious claims to Kashmir.
His relentless cavilling about purported Indian perfidy in Kashmir is also not surprising given the posts he’s held and his appointment to the presidency of POK. In particular, upon leaving the post as Pakistan’s president, he bemoaned Pakistan’s inability “to mobilize international support for Kashmir” due to “India’s colonial and irredentist occupation of the territory”.
A Controversial Past and Present
Washington and New Delhi have both raised eyebrows over his selection. It is understandable. Despite Pakistan’s complete lack of historical and legal legitimacy, he has persistently pushed its Kashmir-related claims.
In his call for a referendum, he assumes (usually correctly) that the resolution of the UN Security Council is read. Except for a few predictable voices of ignorant individuals in Congress swayed by Pakistan’s extensive lobbying enterprises, Washington has long grown tired of Pakistan’s perpetual flogging of this long-dead horse.
Having actively supported terrorist organizations such as Hizb-ul Mujahideen, which was labelled a terrorist organization by the Trump administration in 2017, is more problematic, as its leader Syed Salahuddin as a “Specially Designated Global Terrorist”.
Khan says the terrorist outfit has been fighting “for the independence of Indian-occupied Kashmir, asserting that there is no connection between their struggle and any terrorist activity on the other side of the border”.
For the record, the data contradict his claims that Indian soldiers commit genocide in Kashmir and that the US declaration of freedom fighters as terrorists is a criminal departure from humanitarian and democratic norms.
Between 1990 and 2019, the group successfully conducted 244 terrorist attacks, according to a database on international terrorism maintained by the University of Maryland. The attacks claimed 356 lives and injured 633.
In describing the support he provided to various Islamist terrorist organizations and leaders, Sam Westrop detailed how he assisted Deobandi Harkat-ul Mujahideen (HuM) leader Fazlur Rehman Khalil. Khalil himself was designated as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist by the United States in 2014.
Osama’s first fatwa against the United States was written by Khalil, a member of the International Islamic Front led by Osama. Before his death, Khalil had a close relationship with Osama bin Laden and was an essential member of al-Qaeda.
For the most part, he is regarded by Delhi as a noxious provocateur for his several criticisms of India’s military operations in Kashmir, varying invalidity and absurdity. His unrelenting hailing of slain terrorist leader Burhan Wani associated with Hizbul Mujahideen as a hero and his comparison of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s regime to the fascist regime Adolph Hitler.
It seems natural to question the sobriety of the Generals’ selection of Khan because of the current state of relations between India and Pakistan and between the United States and Pakistan. While the Indian government continues to forge ties with Washington, despite multiple serious disagreements, the notion that it should continuously clean up its diplomatic messes is unpalatable, and for a good reason. His appointment is likely a sign of more reckless Pakistani shenanigans aimed at causing problems for India at home and abroad, given the ISI’s relentless efforts to stir up problems in Punjab and Kashmir.
Will The Panga Pay Off?
If Khan assumes the post early next year, Pakistan is unlikely to reap the benefits it expects. Khan himself makes a mockery of Pakistan’s policies towards Kashmir. For all of Pakistan’s whining about Indian malfeasance in Kashmir, its record to Kashmiris is ridiculous. Even Human Rights Watch agrees with this statement.
Pakistan may find it challenging to convince Washington to play this one-note, sad song on the Kashmir kazoo if it insists on playing it. It is exhausting watching Pakistan participate in endless terrorist attacks and engage in constant dalliances with Islamist terrorists.
This has been made clear by Washington. Although President Joe Biden’s not calling Imran Khan yet, the prime minister continues to whine. Although Biden has not mentioned Pakistan since he followed through on Obama’s disastrous plan to hand over Afghanistan to Pakistan, the President quickly understands how Pakistan’s behaviour undermined American efforts as Vice President.
During this time, vocal Pakistan critics like Bruce Riedell advised the Obama White House. Moreover, most of those who have served in Afghanistan have no doubt who backed the Taliban: Pakistan’s armed forces.
This silence, combined with US government antipathy for Pakistan, suggests that security managers in Rawalpindi and Abpaara may need to be more probing. When those men and women become generals, they won’t harbour the soft spot for Pakistan’s soldiers that many current American generals do.
Pakistan is so used to breeding and releasing terrorists in its region that it anticipates indeed becoming Washington’s duplicitous, though well-compensated, partner once more in managing the crises in Afghanistan it conditioned first.
Since 1954, Washington has always fallen for the ruse and subsidized the terrorist farming business, Pakistan’s most lucrative industry.
EDITED AND PROOFREAD BY NIKITA SHARMA
