No to Bloc Politics?

In Blog, Economic Security, National Security
April 11, 2022
Gulrukh Nafees
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Pakistan has suffered as a result of its involvement in bloc politics and now for the first time since its formation the country adopted a policy of refraining from such engagements. A controversy was recently stirred by PM Imran’s declared and open response to European Union’s letter asking Islamabad to condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine,

Pakistan has suffered as a result of its involvement in bloc politics and now for the first time since its formation the country adopted a policy of refraining from such engagements. A controversy was recently stirred by PM Imran’s declared and open response to European Union’s letter asking Islamabad to condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the premier questioned this in a public gathering by asking if they had made similar demands to India. However, it needs to be understood if such a policy will affect our relations with the west and its allies, is it realistic given Pakistan’s economic condition and lastly how has the country suffered from its involvement in bloc politics?

Although the state has advocated for the resolution of Russia-Ukraine conflict through negotiations. However diplomatic experts widely believed that such a harsh response from the PM will have adverse impact on Pakistan’s relations with the EU and other allies. Since Pakistan is a signatory to the United Nations Charter which in the first article pledges to maintain international peace and to that end take collective measures for the elimination of violence this can be seen as move towards siding with Russia and not honoring its international obligations to stop aggression. Moreover, the premier’s untimely visit to Russia and signing a deal over importing two million metric tons of wheat and the construction of 1,100 km long gas pipeline from Karachi to North Eastern Punjab province further adds fuel to the fire.

These events also raise questions to the sustainability of such an approach as it is likely to strain relations with the west at a time when the country is heavily reliant on foreign aid for its economic well -being supported by the evidence that from 2019-2020 United States was the top donor of on budget grant based assistance, similarly from 2009 onwards it has given Pakistan 5 billion in civil assistance and 1 billion dollars in humanitarian response making US our largest economic partner and second largest supplier of military equipment. Likewise, EU is also a strategic trade partner as 76% of Pakistani exports enter EU quota free which amounts to 20% of its exports globally, hence posing a threat to countries economic well being given tensions escalate.

It is true that sovereign states put certain restrictions on their freedom of action by acting in accordance with the treaties they have ratified to. However, despite all the limitations there are two tenets to the concept of sovereignty that apply regardless, firstly, all states in the international forum are equal and secondly each state can take into account its self interest specially on issues of national security and for that purpose the state itself decides what constitutes national security. It is no surprise that forming alliances in the past has proved detrimental to Pakistan’s national interest.

An example of that would be Pakistan’s support to United States during the cold war which it projected by joining security blocks like SEATO (1954) and CENTO (1955) to ward off communist threat in the region. Pakistan also cooperated with the United States and Britain’s M16 in financing and funding of the Afghan Mujahideen to fight the Russian troops which is considered as a reason for the breakup of the USSR. All this was followed by a military embargo from the US on Pakistan over the development of nuclear weapons it had built to defend itself against India that was lifted in 1994 after Pakistan agreed to participate with the US in wars in Somalia and Bosnia. Richard Armitage a former American diplomat also admitted in 2002 that Pakistan was never important to the US, it was important because of third parties and its importance was derived from the importance of South Asia collectively.

A similar fate was met in its support to America against war on terror after the 9/11 incident which resulted in an influx of Afghan Refugees to Pakistan given that the economy was ill equipped to deal with such a rise in the population and till date suffers from its adverse impact. A spike in terrorist attacks was another consequence of getting involved in the war, till 2001 Pakistan did not have a single terrorist attack but from then onwards till 2009 it had 200 terrorist attacks in which 10,670 civilians were reported to have died. In the fourteen years of war Pakistan suffered a loss of 106.98 billion dollars.

Either way the country suffers but getting involved in bloc politics was never a wise thing to do and now that Pakistan has its experiences to learn from it would be sheer misfortune if it reenters into such alliances no matter what the big powers expect from it. Instead, Pakistan should invest time and energy in reviving and uplifting its economy to free itself from the shackles of foreign aid.