Imran Khan is trying to champion the cause of Kashmiri population forgetting that his own government is crushing the legitimate demands of people of Baluchistan. As per Mama Oadeer, an activist, told HRCP that around 47,000 Baloch and around 35,000 Pashtuns are ‘missing’.

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Imran Khan’s military handlers have given him a script to create a fake rhetoric of false flag operation against Pakistan by India. In spite of repeated lies, it has failed to attract domestic as well as foreign attention. The real reasons for this victim-hood card is to blame India if there is uprising within Pakistan against his inefficient governance. The frustration of Imran Khan and General Bajwa is apparent since nothing is going right for Pakistan at the moment. Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has not yet bailed out Pakistan and it remains in grey list. Thus these utterances of Politico-Military leadership of Pakistan should be seen as a sign of desperation, frustration and inability to deliver basic governance. Emerging threat is from rising aspirations of Jaish -e-Mohammad (JeM) and Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) to play larger role in Afghanistan and South Asia. Infact, the fear of false flag operation is not from India but in reality from those 40 universally identified terror groups that Pakistan has allowed to nurture in their backyard. At this stage when people are under extreme desperation for government support to avail basic amenities for survival, there is likelihood of large scale uprising and terror attacks on critical infrastructure within Pakistan. The US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s words in the context of Pakistan that, “You can’t keep snakes in your backyard and expect them only to bite your neighbours.”

First important aspect is that this rhetoric of false flag operation by politico-military leadership of Pakistan is choreographed to primarily address domestic audience, since Pakistan is conscious of the fact that there could be an internal turbulence due to failure of economy, collapse of health services to deal with Covid19, massive job losses and close to 50% population at the verge of starvation. According to the National Nutrition Survey 2018, poverty keeps more than 50 per cent of Pakistani families from having two meals a day. Due to economic collapse, Pakistan has failed to even provide any stimulus to the people living under the poverty line, as a result there is turbulence within society and massive anger against the inefficiency of the Imran Khan Government. It is apparent that the false flag operation against Imran Khan Government will be done by disaffected public and it does not require external abatement.

Another objective of Pakistan to raise the bogy of false flag operation is to attract the attention of the international community so that Pakistan creates a facade of victim-hood to gain support of Saudi Arabia and Arab world that had snubbed Pakistan against calling OIC summit to discuss Kashmir issue. At the same time Pakistan is also under tremendous pressure to repay short term loans from China, Saudi Arabia and UAE. The bailout from IMF is conditional and IMF wants an assurance from the Government of Pakistan that the bailout package will not be spent to repay loans (China and other countries) and no fund diversion for military purpose.

The anger of public against Imran Khan Government is rising and Pakistan may be heading towards a serious internal turbulence. At this stage when Pakistan military is engaged in Baluchistan and KPK area, it is unwilling to face any internal turbulence in Sindh or Punjab. With food commodities and energy prices rising, an element of public unrest, which could morph into even an agitation against the PTI government, remains a real possibility.

Around 47,000 Baloch and around 35,000 Pashtuns are ‘missing’, and many family members explained how their loved ones have been abducted and not heard from since.

Mama Oadeer ,Human rights activist
(Abdul Qadeer Baloch, better known as Mama Qadeer is a self-proclaimed human rights activist from the Balochistan province of Pakistan)

Imran Khan is trying to champion the cause of Kashmiri population forgetting that his own government is crushing the legitimate demands of people of Baluchistan. As per Mama Oadeer, an activist, told HRCP that around 47,000 Baloch and around 35,000 Pashtuns are ‘missing’, and many family members explained how their loved ones have been abducted and not heard from since. Some experts feel that actual figures could be even much higher. The condition in Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) is even worse, according to the South Asia Terrorism Portal (SATP), “A total of 5.3 million people in Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) were displaced as a consequence of counter terrorism operations since 2008.

On the other side, Pakistan’s big worry is rising discontentment of people of Pakistan occupied Jammu & Kashmir (including Gilgit Baltistan). Agitation against Pakistan Government is now a routine and with heavy investment in China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), Pakistan is even under pressure from China to resolve issues with the local population.

Gilgit-Baltistan is Pakistan’s geopolitical loophole that is becoming unstable due to arbitrary takeover of land of minority Shia community.

Kunwar Khuldune Shahid

What is important at this stage for Pakistan is to look inward and address public grievances and control hounds of terror that is threatening the Pakistan from within. Unless Pakistan sets its house in order, it will only keep sinking in economic and political mud slide. It will be appropriate to suggest that Pakistan’s false flag operation is a ghost of its own shadow.