Nuaman Ishfaq Mughal,
Islamabad: Mr. Rupert Stone, foreign journalist, said although it was being widely projected and believed that the Afghan Taliban were the puppets of foreign powers especially Pakistan, but research showed that this depiction of the group was inaccurate. He said this at an international conference on “Positive Propaganda vs. Rhetoric: Managing Policy Perception of Pakistan” organized by Islamabad based think tank Pakistan House.
He added that the Taliban far from being Pakistani was a distinctly Afghan phenomenon. “While foreign sanctuary has been important to the Taliban’s campaign, they are not puppets of foreign interests, but Afghan nationalists,” he added.
He further added that the insurgency in Afghanistan had been successful in part because of Taliban’s social roots and understanding of local conditions, which had benefited them in a number of areas, including intelligence and information operations.
He also stated that Afghan Taliban increasingly presented themselves as representatives of Afghanistan as a whole, not one particular ethnic group, however, they remained predominantly Pashtun. Nonetheless, they had also involved other ethnic groups as around a quarter of the Afghan Taliban leadership shura and commissions consisted of Tajiks, Uzbeks and so on. Similarly, they had even recruited some Hazaras, who were brutally persecuted under their pre-2001 rule.
Ms. Najma Minhas, Managing Editor, Global Village Space who also spoke at the conference as a keynote speaker said that Pakistan must talk about the issues it faces domestically in order to project itself strongly. She added that, the failure to represent Pakistan’s case properly was due to a weaker role of Urdu media in Pakistan, which were more concerned about the small and irrelevant issues but neglected the bigger issues that Pakistan faced.
Prof. Dr. Zafar Nawaz Jaspal from School of Politics and International Relations, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad launched his book, “India’s ‘Surgical Strike’ Stratagem: Brinkmanship and Response” at the conference. While speaking about his book he said that the incumbent Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi frequently reiterated the application and execution of “jaw for a tooth” strategy to punish Pakistan and its armed forces. He was also of the view that India’s ‘Surgical Strike Stratagem’ brought nuclear-armed neighbors at the brink of catastrophic war after the Pulwama incident in the Indian Occupied Kashmir (IOK), but due to Prime Minister Imran Khan’s mature and confident actions the situation normalized.
Lieutenant General Khalid Rabbani (Retd), former Corps Commander XI Corps (Peshawar) appreciated timely launch of Professor Dr. Zafar Nawaz Jaspal’s book which squashed Indian propaganda of carrying surgical strikes inside Pakistan. He said that India’s Cold Start Doctrine directly targeted Pakistan, and India faked surgical strikes tried to establish its doctrine but failed due to a vigilant response by Pakistan Air Force, and a calculated response by the Prime Minister and Foreign Office of Pakistan.
Ambassador Abdul Basit (Retd), former High Commissioner of Pakistan to India also spoke on the occasion. He advised university students to read Dr. Zafar Nawaz Jaspal’s book, crediting it of highly importance to counter Indian propaganda.
The conference concluded with the remarks of Mr. Rana Athar Javed, Director General, Pakistan House who said that rise of social media have added new dimensions to propaganda and rhetoric. He added that although it is important to highlight weaknesses, but they must be done on right forums
