Pakistan’s Failed Diplomacy on Article 370, UN Representative Maleeha Lodhi Heckled by Man in New York
In a sign that the international community has opened its eyes to the support of terrorism from the Pakistani side, there seem to be no takers for Pakistan protest against abrogation of Article 370 for Jammu and Kashmir by India.
Despite all diplomatic efforts from the PM and foreign minister of Pakistan, no country has yet come out openly in support of Pakistan. Even IOC countries haven’t come to Pakistan’s rescue and countries like UAE are calling it India’s internal matter.
Now in the latest embarrassment to Pakistan, Maleeha Lodhi, Pakistan’s permanent representative to the United Nations was confronted by a man claiming to be Pakistani citizen at an event in New York.
He surely did not have kind words for the officials present in the event. During Lodhi’s interaction with media persons on the sidelines of the event, the man interrupted saying he had questions for the Pakistani official.
The video from the event suggests that when Lodhi was concluding the press meet, the man got agitated and said, “You can’t be done, I have questions for you.”
Visibly upset and surprised by the unexpected intervention, Pakistani officials tried to avoid the questions. Eventually, they rushed away after a brief argument with the annoyed Pakistani citizen.
“I have a question for you, you cannot be done…what are you doing? For the past 10 years, 15 years, what are you doing?”, said the man, accusing Pakistan’s permanent representative to the UN of “stealing our money”. He also called Maleeha Lodhi a thief and said “People are going to reach to you like this now. Nobody is going to get away anymore
Responding to his aggression, Lodhi said, “That’s not the way you ask a question,” while another official at the event said, “We are not replying like this”.
The man, however, justified his actions. He said that since Lodhi is an official from Pakistan, he had the right to ask her questions as he was a Pakistani.
Pakistans futile diplomatic efforts
After the scrapping of article 370 on Kashmir by India, Pakistan has been unusually aggressive. India has been insisting that the changes in article 370 of the Indian constitution are the internal matter of India.
Complaining against India, Pakistan last week wrote a letter to the United Nations regarding abrogation of the special status of Jammu and Kashmir. But it found no weight in the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) with its president Joanna Wronecka even refusing to make any comments.
Even Taliban has issued a statement saying Afghanistan cannot be turned into a theatre of competition at the behest of Pakistan. Its spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahed said, “Linking the issue of Kashmir with that of Afghanistan by some parties will not aid in improving the crisis at hand because the issue of Afghanistan is not related.”
Information war on Kashmir
There is an information war currently brewing in the social media and other online platforms. While Kashmir still has restricted access, voices claiming to support and reject revoking the article 370 is trending online since 5th of August.
Pakistani claims that China and Turkey have openly come in support for Pakistan also seems to be more about placating its own citizens. As neither of them has made any statements to corroborate Pakistani stand.
