AIOU Course Code 4662-1 Solved Assignment Spring 2022

Course: Foreign Policy of Pakistan-II (4662)

Semester: Spring, 2022

ASSIGNMENT No. 1

Q.1   Critically analyze the US role during East Pakistan crisis in 1971. Why had the US could not play its effective role in thwarting that crisis?

The partition of India in 1947 created West and East Pakistan, two noncontiguous territories that shared a dominant religion of Islam but were very different in terms of language, ethnicity and culture. In the 1970 parliamentary elections, an overwhelming number of East Pakistanis voted for a political party that advocated autonomy for the East, but it was blocked from governing by the Army and the existing Pakistani government, and its leader was jailed. The resulting mass protests in the East were brutally suppressed by the Pakistani Army, which caused a massive refugee movement into neighboring India. East Pakistani guerilla forces, supported by India, fought with the Pakistani Army in the late autumn of 1971. West Pakistan responded with air attacks on India, resulting in open war between the two powers beginning on December 3.

The United States faced several dilemmas in how to respond to the crisis. The regional situation was already complex. India signed a treaty of mutual assistance with the Soviet Union in August, 1971, and the People’s Republic of China was friendly to Pakistan and had fought a war with India in 1962. However, Pakistan was a valuable diplomatic partner, and its government helped the United States achieve a rapprochement with the People’s Republic of China in the early 1970s. After President Richard Nixon’s visit in 1969, the U.S. Government had resumed selling Pakistan military equipment, a process that had been disrupted by the previous 1965 India-Pakistan War

Q.2   Discuss Pak Soviet relations during the government of Z. A. Bhutto.         

After the damning defeat of 1971, Pakistan was in poor and pitiable state, while India, in every respect was most dominant, in a position to dictate its terms. What did Mr. Bhutto have in his hands to compel his counterpart Indira to agree to his terms? The situation for Mr. Bhutto was very difficult, his path was full of thorns; but one of his remarkable qualities was that he had never lost heart even in the most difficult and the most hopeless situations.

He rose equal to the occasion by his rare natural gifts, and he amply proved it in Simla. On 21st June 1972, President Bhutto flew with his daughter Ms. Benazir and his entourage to Simla, where the Quaid-e-Awam had his most crucial and historical talks and discussions with the ruling Indian regime and the astute Hindu politicians. Just as Jinnah was the sole spokesman of the Muslims of United India, so was Mr. Bhutto the sole spokesman of Pakistan. He had taken the largest entourage with himself on this occasion. In March 1972, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, president of Pakistan, visited the Soviet Union to help normalize formal relations between the two countries. Bhutto engaged in substantive discussions with Soviet leaders in Moscow, including meeting with Chairman Alexei Kosygin and Secretary-General Leonid Brezhnev.

Even before being elected on a socialist platform in 1971, Bhutto had spoken of the necessity of independent foreign policy and stronger relations with the Soviet Union, which had been fractured during the direct war with India and the Indo-Soviet Treaty.

Q.3   Elaborate Pakistan’s relations with Iraq. Why had Iraq supported anti Pakistan elements during 1970s?

Iraq–Pakistan relations refer to the bilateral ties between the Republic of Iraq and the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Cultural interaction and economic trade between Mesopotamia and the Indus Valley date back to 1800 BCE. In 1955, both Iraq and Pakistan joined the Baghdad Pact, a military alliance against the Soviet Union. However, when the king of Iraq was assassinated in 1958, Iraq pulled out of the Baghdad Pact, which was subsequently renamed to the Central Treaty Organization (CENTO). During the Ba’athist era, high levels of tension persisted between Iraq and Pakistan due to a number of conflicting interests between the two states, such as Iraq’s support for Baloch rebel groups in Pakistan and Iran, Pakistan’s support for Iran during the Iran–Iraq War, Pakistan’s participation with the United States-led coalition against Iraq during the Gulf War, and Iraq’s support for India against Pakistan with regards to the Kashmir conflict. However, following the 2003 invasion of Iraq that toppled the Ba’athist government, bilateral relations have stabilized; Pakistan has supported Iraq in its fight against the Islamic State and other militant groups active in the Iraqi conflict. Iraq maintains an embassy in Islamabad while Pakistan maintains an embassy in Baghdad.

Relations between the two countries deteriorated during the 1970s, beginning with the 1971 Organization of Islamic Conference summit in Lahore. Iraq was the second country and first Arab country to recognise Bangladesh as a sovereign nation after East Germany in 1972. Iraq’s then-President Hassan al-Bakr financially and militarily supported the Balochistan Liberation Army during the internal rebellion in Balochistan. The support continued till 1973 when the Military Intelligence of Pakistan convinced Akbar Bugti, a Baloch leader, to defect to Pakistan.

Q.4   Elaborate the role of Pakistan in highlighting the liberation aspirations of people of Tunisia.

Relations between Pakistan and Tunisia are generally cordial. Ties between the two countries are strong and premised upon religious and historical affinity. This is emphasized by the absence of any recurring dispute although there is much potential to augment the level of ties. A number of framework agreements have been concluded between Pakistan and Tunisia in the spheres of trade, tourism, culture, information and industries. However, these have been conspicuous for remaining dormant or being scarcely reviewed at best. Diplomatic relations between both states were established in 1957. Pakistan opened its embassy in Tunis in 1958 at the Charges d’ Affaires level which was later upgraded to that of Ambassador/Plenipotentiary in 1964. Tunisia introduced its embassy in Islamabad in 1980.

Pakistan supported Tunisia during its struggle for independence. Members of that generation who are still living fondly recall Pakistan’s steadfastness for backing Tunisia’s liberation movement. Between 1948 and 1954, Pakistan’s first Foreign Minister, Sir Zafarullah Khan, represented Pakistan at the United Nations Security Council where he vociferously advocated for Tunisian freedom from colonial rule.

So were the contributions of renowned writer and diplomat, Patras Bokhari, lauded by the Tunisian government for his defense of Tunisian independence. During his tenure as Pakistan’s Permanent Representative at the United Nations from 1951 to 1954, he delivered an epic speech on the floor of the Security Council for which a road was named after him by Tunisia right after its independence in 1956. For its part, Tunisia has backed Pakistan in the Kashmir conflict but insomuch that it does not antagonize India, with whom it has fostered significant trade relations.

Q.5   Make a detailed analysis of the ways Pakistan supported the right of self-determination of people of Palestine. Critically analyze the cost that Pakistan paid in terms of reaction of Jewish lobby in the World.

The Commission on Human Rights began this afternoon its annual discussion of the right of peoples to self-determination and its application to peoples under colonial or alien domination and foreign occupation, hearing a series of countries urge an end to the Israeli presence in occupied Palestine and a call from the Organization of the Islamic Conference for self-determination both for Palestine and for Jammu and Kashmir.
In addition, a Representative of Iraq said an aggression against that nation’s territory was under way that had not been authorized by the United Nations and it amounted to an attempt to deny Iraq the right to determine its own Government and future.

Representatives of Palestine and Israel spoke, the Palestinian official contending that Security Council and Commission resolutions were not applied with fairness, since those referring to Palestinians’ rights were not implemented; and the Israeli official stating that Israel accepted Palestine’s right to self-determination but that Israel’s similar right had to be recognized, and that a solution to the Middle East crisis lay in detailed negotiations between the two sides.