THE ASIAN INDEPENDENT UK
Bal Ram Sampla
Geopolitics
For decades, Pakistan has positioned itself as the great champion of Kashmiri rights. At United Nations podiums, in diplomatic corridors, and in its enduring rivalry with India, Islamabad has consistently presented itself as the voice of an oppressed people yearning for self-determination. But recent events in Pakistan-administered Kashmir have exposed a uncomfortable truth that Islamabad would rather the world not notice.
Thousands of protesters have taken to the streets of Rawalakot, marching and demonstrating against the very government that claims to represent their aspirations. Their demands are not complicated. They want political rights, better governance, and an end to Islamabad’s heavy-handed control over their lives. These are people demanding dignity and democratic accountability from a government that speaks about their freedom on the world stage while denying it behind closed doors.
Then came the moment that revealed everything. Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khawaja Asif, never a man known for careful words, let slip what many suspected was the true attitude of Pakistani authorities. He publicly questioned whether residents of Rawalakot and Mirpur were even Kashmiris at all. It was a breathtaking remark clumsy, arrogant, and accidentally honest. In trying to dismiss the protesters, he inadvertently confirmed their deepest grievance. To Islamabad, Kashmiris are not a people to be genuinely served. They are a cause to be managed, a narrative to be controlled, and ultimately a pawn in a much larger geopolitical game.
This is the heart of the matter. Pakistan’s Kashmir policy has always been more about its rivalry with India than about the actual human beings living in Kashmir. The cause of Kashmiri self-determination serves Pakistan’s strategic interests, provides moral ammunition in international forums, and fuels nationalist sentiment at home. But when real Kashmiris exercise that very self-determination by protesting against Islamabad’s control, suddenly their identity and legitimacy is questioned. The mask slips completely.
The irony could not be sharper. Pakistan lectures the world about Kashmiri rights while Kashmiris themselves march in the streets demanding those rights from Pakistan. Asif’s careless remark did not create this contradiction. It simply made it impossible to ignore.
The protesters of Rawalakot deserve better than to be pawns in someone else’s political game. And the world watching this unfold should ask a simple question: if Pakistan truly believes in Kashmiri self-determination, why are Kashmiris having to fight for it against Islamabad itself?
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