“It isn’t enough to talk about peace. One must believe in it. And it isn’t enough to believe in it. One must work at it.” - Eleanor Roosevelt

China: friend or foe

The rhetoric of China-Pakistan friendship is endless, but more so in Pakistan. In 2013, 90 per cent of Pakistanis said China is our friend. So Pakistan is the world’s most pro-China country. But have we ever tried to dissect the Pakistan-China friendship? Pakistan has faced so many challenges since it was created in 1947, and it is still a mess. These challenges can be categorised into three groups: natural disasters, wars/conflicts, and poverty/crime. In terms of natural disasters, although the Chinese economy is one of the world’s largest, capable of providing after every natural disaster but it has provided minimum or symbolic aid abroad. In 2005’s devastating earthquake, countries like Cuba and Vietnam came to rescue the victims and later offered medical scholarships to the people of affected areas. Where was friendly China? When we analyse wars and conflicts, what are China’s efforts toward resolving the Kashmir dispute? Suggesting Pakistan should annex Gilgit-Baltistan for investments or selling guns and missiles? Similar is the angle of poverty. How many Chinese NGOS are there working to end poverty and poverty related problems in Pakistan? Pak-China friendship has benefited Pakistan, but it has more potential to harm. It has certainly benefitted China, which got Aksai China and the Trans-Karakoram Tract and is now going to have Gilgit-Baltistan. Although, China does support Pakistan as a friend in advancing and developing it in commercial and business sector. The new commercial culture introduced by China has not just facilitated the middle and low-income consumers in Pakistan, it has also helped small traders to explore options they could have only dreamt about without access to Chinese merchandise. Thus, China is a hand which we must grasp with eyes open. CPEC, Gwadar are all plans which may benefit Pakistan. However, one must remain wary. Is this another typical trick of “debt diplomacy”? Is Gwadar China’s next Harbanspura Port? After all it’s the People’s Republic of China, not Pakistan.

Aly Rashid,
Karachi.

Delhi atrocities

The Muslims of India came out on the streets to protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in New Delhi and other Indian cities to exercise their legal right to question laws passed by the government, but the anti-Muslim riots in the national capital is proof that the government has even deprived the citizens of their constitutional right. The CAA, which grants a fast-track to Indian citizenship for certain religious minorities but, crucially, not for Muslims, was seen by lawyers, activists and intellectuals, as much as by the Muslim community, as exclusionary and counter to the principle of equality enshrined in the Constitution of India. As a result of the peaceful protests, many houses owned by the Muslims of Delhi were looted and torched by a mob of masked and helmeted young men armed with hockey sticks, stones and bottles filled with petrol, and chanting "Jai Shri Ram", or "Victory to Lord Ram", a greeting which has been turned into a murder cry by Hindu lynch mobs in recent years. More than 40 Muslims have been killed by this angry mob and many are now leaving, hoisting their unburned things on their heads and trudging away from streets that still smell of smoke. Hate is being preached openly against the Indian Muslims. The catastrophe facing the Indian Muslims is a defining global justice issue of our time. It is not an intractable conflict between two equal sides. It is an occupation by a powerful military state, armed and supported by the West, against impoverished, and displaced minority. All the global leaders must once and for all put an end to this appalling injustice caused by India, a state which violates international law daily in the absence of any form of accountability, and to end permanently the massacre of Muslim minorities in India.

Humaira Abid,
Islamabad.