ALI SUKHANVER
Certainly one would call it illogical to trace some connection between the terrorist attack on Police Training Academy in Quetta and the successful completion of international PACES championship at Ayub stadium Lahore but unfortunately these two events are closely connected. And the whole episode revolves around a single point; Pakistan’s international isolation. Pakistan’s international isolation has been an ever green dream of the forces hostile to Pakistan. Our closest neighbour India is on the frontline of all such dreamers. For this purpose India leaves no stone unturned. A few days back India tried to give a new life to this old dream by boycotting the 19th SAARC Summit which was to be held in Islamabad in November this year. Apparently India’s boycott of this summit was a reaction to Pakistan’s so-called involvement in Uri attacks, though latter it was proved that the terrorists were purely of Indian origin and they had no linkage with Pakistan, India remained adamant on its blame. The only purpose of this stubbornness was to deface the realities and to defame Pakistan as a policy matter. India’s boycott was followed by the boycott of Afghanistan, Bhutan and Bangladesh. Now after India’s boycott of the SAARC Summit, it was a big challenge for Pakistan to neutralize this negative propaganda that Pakistan is drifting towards international isolation. Pakistan Army accepted the challenge of defeating India on this front too. Recently this ‘Internationally isolated Pakistan’ extremely successfully hosted the first ever international PACES championship at Ayub Stadium Lahore on 18th of this October. Participants from 16 countries including United Kingdom, China, Saudi Arabia, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Bahrain, Malaysia, Australia, Maldives, Bangladesh, Turkey and Indonesia honoured this championship with their presence. The Championship event continued for five days. This grand event was organized by the Pakistan Army and it was the first ever competition in the world of this type. The abbreviation PACES stands for Physical Agility & Combat Efficiency System. This is basically a fitness testing and training program introduced and initiated by the Pakistan Army specifically for the preparation of military officials for Operation Zarb-e-Azb. PACES championship was introduced after the militaries of several nations showed interest in Pakistan Army’s training methods and programs. Apart from its military value and importance, the championship simply rejected the so-called propaganda that Pakistan has become internationally isolated. It also proved to the world that Pakistan is a very safe place to hold International events successfully. But our friends in the neighbourhood could not accept this marvelous success of Pakistan. Just after the completion of the PACES Championship event, the terrorists’ attack on Quetta Police Training Academy seems an attempt to quash the recently created positive heart-winning image of Pakistan. In other words this attack is an attempt to give the world again an impression that Pakistan is not a safe country.
The story of hostility against Pakistan does not stop here; in India’s hatred-based war against Pakistan we come across so many characters whose aim and objective is nothing but to malign Pakistan’s image at every forum. Naila Qadri is also among the long queue of such poisonous characters. Naila Qadri claims that she is President, World Baloch Women’s Forum though originally she does not belong to Balochistan. During her recent visit to India this lady stated in an interview that Baloch activists want to form “Azad Balochistan Government in Exile” and they want India, Afghanistan and SAARC countries to support Balochistan Government in Exile. She told the media that a conference is being organized at All India Institute of Local Self Government, Mumbai in the last days of October. In this conference the speakers and the participants would express solidarity with their brethren across the border. But this struggle of Naila Qadri for the formation of “Azad Balochistan Government in Exile” was strongly condemned by another ‘Baloch leader’ Hamdan Baloch in a statement. Hamdan said that no single person can speak on behalf of Baloch people without any support from people of Balochistan. He further said that his organization BRP will support no such idea without taking the Government of India into confidence. In short India is doing all possible to crush Pakistan by helping the terrorists, by supporting the insurgencies and by favouring the enemies of Pakistan. We as a nation will have to be very alert and vigilant in this context.