‘Kashmir gone, what’s left,’ top PPP leader asks Pakistan PM Imran Khan

Arun Joshi
Jammu, July 2

Pakistan is in a shambles, and it has lost Kashmir. This was a stinging but realistic comment by Senator Sherry Rehman of Pakistan about her country, which she feels has lost everything and nothing is left to hope for.

Sherry Rehman is a parliamentary leader of the Pakistan People’s Party in the senate, Upper House of Pakistan Parliament. Her comment — reflecting on a hard-hitting editorial in today’s Dawn newspaper about the proceedings in the National Assembly — was realistic as she spoke about the state of affairs of Pakistan under Prime Minister Imran Khan.

She summed it up on Twitter: “Kashmir gone, what’s left.” This was a biting reality that no Pakistan leader of her stature — a diplomat, politician and intellectual — has ever stated in these terms.

There could be many interpretations to the expression “Kashmir gone”, but the most plausible seems to be that Kashmir has slipped out of the hands of Pakistani influence, which the country wielded on certain sections in the valley.

Interestingly, the Dawn editorial titled “Lack of restraint” did not mention anything about Kashmir, though it was quite scathing about Imran Khan and his ways of conducting himself while delivering speeches. It has shown the mirror to the Pakistani ruling elite, particularly the Prime Minister, as to how things have gone wrong for them.

Sherry’s tweet read: “It’s not only about inappropriate speeches in Parliament. Who will stop your PM from destroying Pakistan? Three more years and nothing may be left. Economy is worse, debts r higher, mafias on the rampage, PIA being cannibalised, Kashmir gone, what’s left?”

The remarks on Kashmir are significant as these have come against the backdrop of Pakistan’s loudest voice in Kashmir, Syed Ali Shah Geelani, having resigned from his faction of the Hurriyat Conference on Monday, and also lack of enthusiasm among the people about Pakistan.

In a wider perspective, perhaps she had on her mind Pakistan’s isolation on Kashmir, as no country, barring Turkey and Malaysia, supported Islamabad after Delhi scrapped the special status of J&K and bifurcated it into two Union territories.

A couple of days ago, Imran Khan said he had approached the United Nations Secretary General and other world leaders to urge India to stop the issuance of domicile certificates in Kashmir.

Maybe his efforts are floundering, and Sherry Rehman is hinting at that, too.

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