Pakistan-China Institute (PCI) in its 25-page report pointed out 16 hours that reshaped South Asia, and India’s 1962-like miscalculation resulting in humiliation and defeat of the Indian Army – an experience that has now been repeated after 63 years in the region.
Launching the report, PCI Chairperson Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed said that Pakistan not only gave a bloody nose to an adversary which had launched unprovoked aggression, but India’s miscalculation produced unintended consequences, which were unthinkable before. He said that Pakistan has settled the score of 1971, paid back the debt with interest. He said the strategic ramification of these ‘16 hours’ resonates well beyond South Asia, since there were global implications of the conflict.
India’s bid on 6 May to impose a coercive ‘new normal’ across the Line of Control unraveled within hours when six front-line fighters — three Rafales, two Su-30MKIs, and one Mirage-2000 — were shot down by the Pakistan Air Force, and a follow-on Indian strike triggered a precisely calibrated counter-salvo that disabled twenty-six Indian sites and installations with missiles, drones, and sweeping electronic jamming, re-establishing deterrence that New Delhi had hoped to overturn, the report pointed out.
Mushahid Hussain rings bells of danger of nuclear weapons that are in hands of India’s current extremist regime
Pakistan outclassed, outmatched and outmanned India in all domains of warfare, resulting in a situation where there was perfect planning, perfect coordination and perfect execution, said Mushahid Hussain, an eminent writer, and a former federal minister, who also heads Senate’s key committee on defense, and foreign relations. He said that Indian aggression has unified Pakistani nation. He said India has shown dangers of nuclear weapons in hands of a regime of extremists, which should cause alarm bells to ring in the region and beyond.
He said that the United States was now playing a role of an ‘honest broker’, ready to mediate on Jammu Kashmir after announcing a ceasefire from the White House. He said that re-hyphenating Pakistan with India with added humiliation of New Delhi actively soliciting third-party mediation to relieve pressure from Islamabad. He said that China’s technology successfully surpassed Western technology and Pakistan’s profile enhanced as a major Muslim middle power that has the will, capacity, and a national infrastructure to not only repulse the enemy but also to protect the motherland.
“Pakistan and Pakistanis came out better in comparison to India with our leadership, people and media behaving with calm, maturity, using civilized language while demonstrating a responsible nuclear power,” he said, and pointed out that the Indian government took to hate speech, lies, and war hysteria to outpour their venom against Pakistan. Deprived of external endorsement, India’s domestically amplified ‘narrative of success’ found no takers abroad, so the episode delivered simultaneous diplomatic, military, and informational defeat for Delhi, according to the report.
Pakistan can fight battle of narratives thru media, think tanks, opinion leaders, parliamentary and public diplomacy
For immediate future, the CPI report suggested Pakistan to revolve foreign policy around three key areas in a well thought-out, and sustained manner, as Pakistan will be a member of the UN Security Council during 2025-2026. Adopting a proactive diplomacy, Pakistan must focus on the Global South, key Western countries and a strategic reorientation towards Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal and the Maldives besides reinforcing relations to friends like China, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Azerbaijan, Iran, UAE, and Qatar who stood by Pakistan in this hour of need.
The report also suggested the government in Islamabad to adopt a creative lawfare, especially on the issue of the Indus Waters Treaty as well as India’s state-sponsored terror against Pakistan and taking RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh) to court for its policies based on fascism and promoting hatred towards Muslims, and other minorities. It also suggested to fight a battle of narratives through credible media, think tanks, opinion leaders, parliamentary and public diplomacy, including developing credible English language TV news, and digital news and information channels with a broader outreach.
A comprehensive, and sustained policy approach must also include setting own house in order through a much-needed healing touch so that national unity which has galvanized the nation must not be frittered away at the altar of partisan politics or a short-sighted approach. “We have to look at the big picture with a big heart, with a broad-minded approach that is inclusive so that domestic irritants do not become an impediment to the larger objective of taking Pakistan forward,” the report suggested.
The CPI report confirmed that India has shown ‘strategic clarity’ towards Pakistan with a consistent 3-D approach – demonize, damage and destabilize Pakistan through disinformation and fake content, reaching out world financial institutions to block funding and loans, and promoting terror and separatism in some parts. It suggested that Pakistan too needs to have a strategic clarity on its India policy since there has been a ‘confusion’ on this count in the past. The report also mentioned all telephoned conversations between Pakistan’s democratic leadership with heads of the states and the governments of different countries.
