Resolution 901

The United States (US) House of Representatives has decided to once again ‘flex’ its democratic credentials – which by and large are now quite suspect given the way it picks and chooses causes. On Wednesday, the House brought in a resolution urging Pakistan to investigate claims about manipulation of results during the general elections conducted on February 8. Expectedly – and justifiably – Pakistan’s Foreign Office (FO) has rejected these claims and said the resolution by the US lawmakers “stems from an incomplete understanding of the country’s electoral process”. The government too has not taken this slight lightly, Defence Minister Khawaja Asif tweeting: “This is from the country that spent the 20th century overthrowing democratically elected governments, and currently facilitating [a] genocide.” He also said that there is a history of irregularities in 2016 and 2020 elections in the US. According to Khawaja Asif, we are bearing the brunt of American interference even now apart from facing the consequences of the two wars of the US supported by generals Zia and Musharraf. He has also questioned who benefits from terrorism in Pakistan and who doesn’t want China to invest in Pakistan. The defence minister is not the only one upset about the resolution. Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar has said that Pakistan will also bring a resolution in response to the US House of Representatives’ resolution and that a draft resolution has been prepared in this regard.

As was inevitable, the PTI is hardly upset at the resolution. In fact, former President Arif Alvi has lauded the resolution and said that it is “a positive push in the right direction, along the lines of our own constitution”. Many other PTI leaders have also lauded the House of Representatives resolution. By most analysis, while the resolution is being applauded by the PTI leadership and criticized by the government representatives, it does not mean anything more than the lawmakers obliging their voters due to this being an election year where campaign funding plays a major role for different lobbies and voters. It would be quite fair to deduce that this does not count as official US policy and that this will not have any adverse effect on Pak-US ties. On the other hand, there are some political commentators who are sounding an alarm. Khawaja Asif is not wrong when he says that the US is facilitating a genocide. He is also not wrong in saying that the superpower has been engaged in overthrowing democratically elected governments around the world in the past. Such obvious contradictions should be highlighted when it comes to the so-called supporter of human rights and democratic values when the same country is involved in turning a blind eye to a genocide and has supported dictatorships around the globe for its own vested interests.

However, for most experts the real issue is not whether the US is officially on board with PTI’s demands and will act against the state of Pakistan but how all the internal political instability in Pakistan is leading to chaos within the country. At a time when all political forces should be focusing on combating terrorism and building a consensus on the way forward for our struggling economy, we see the government and opposition engaging in a war of words regarding a resolution passed in the US House of Representatives. We do need to focus on putting our own house in order and for that we do not need any reminders from the US or other countries.