Mehmood Qureshi – The Cheap Gallery Player

I always knew that Mehmood Qureshi is an over-smart, over-talkative foreign minister who is more interested in destructive diplomacy rather than constructive one (at least while handling issues related to Indo-Pakistan relationship).

But I never knew that he was so good at cheap gallery playing, a quality that he exhibited other day while addressing a mass gathering in Multan in the Punjab province of Pakistan.

Displaying a theatrical histrionics, that completely belied his so-called elite background, Qureshi kept briefing the innocent people about how the Pakistan government scored a diplomatic victory over India by forcing the latter to hold a dialogue with Pakistan despite strong initial reluctance for the same. In a nutshell, what Qureshi meant was that India’s acceptance for a dialogue process was not out of any constructive mindset, but simply out of diplomatic pressure that Pakistan had so successfully exerted on the Indian government.

Qureshi also “highlighted” how India tried to get Pakistan diplomatically isolated from the world, and how his country countered that attempt so effectively.

I do not wish to discuss much about Qureshi’s childish behaviour on that day. Rather, I have a humble suggestion for the Pakistan government. And the suggestion is, if it is serious about having a meaningful dialogue with India, then it must replace its foreign minister at the earliest. With such a blatantly irresponsible foreign minister in place, there is little chance that Pakistan’s scheduled dialogue with India will make any headway.

A couple of years back Pakistan had another such irresponsible foreign minister in Gohar Ayub Khan, a shockingly tactless person who carried his anti-India feelings on his sleeve. Instead of trying to normalize his country’s relationship with India, he kept making provocative remarks. And those remarks not only threatened to further worsen the Indo-Pakistan relationship, but also left Gohar’s own government completely red-faced. And ultimately the then Nawaz Sharif government of Pakistan was forced to replace (read sack) Gohar, when it was convinced that the former army officer had no wish to deviate from making cheap anti-India rhetoric.

Will the Pakistan government act now, or will it like to wait till Qureshi ends up causing a serious damage as far as Indo-Pakistan relationship is concerned?