Pakistan’s attempt to rescind India’s invite to OIC backfires

Abu Dhabi – Pakistan’s demand to rescind the invite the 57-member body, the ‘Organisation of Islamic Cooperation’ (OIC) sent India has boomeranged on it. For India not to get a chance to present itself at the OIC, Pakistan threatened to boycott the meet scheduled to be held in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (UAE). However, the OIC paid no heed to Pakistan’s blackmail and maintained the invite to India. The move is seen as a humiliation of Pakistan in its attempt to corner India. Without any direct mention of the country, Indian Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj lashed out at Pakistan’s terror policies.

“Terrorism is destroying lives, destabilising regions and puts the world in great peril,” foreign minister Swaraj said as she severely criticised terrorism and extremism in her 17-minute speech. “Terrorism and extremism bear different names and labels. It uses diverse causes. However, in each case, it is driven by distortion of religion, and a misguided belief in its power to succeed. One cannot justify terrorism based on religion,” Swaraj asserted at the meet. I’ve come with the good wishes of 130-crore Indians where 18.5 crore Muslim brothers and sisters dwell, reminded Swaraj.

Minister Swaraj’s speech created history. Interestingly, while Swaraj was delivering the speech, the Indian media consistently focused on Pakistani Foreign Minister’s vacant seat. Pakistan had demanded the cancellation of the invitation to India for the OIC meeting. “On 26th February, India pounded the terrorist base camps at Balakot, Pakistan with air strikes. “The act amounts to aggression. To denounce the attacks, OIC must annul the invite sent to India”, demanded Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi. If the demand is not met, Pakistan would boycott the OIC meeting, warned Qureshi.

“India is not an Islamic state nor an OIC member nation or observer. Thus, there is no reason for sending India an invite,” Pakistan stated. Nevertheless, the rest of the OIC member nations completely ignored Pakistan’s warning. As a result, the Pakistan Foreign Minister had no choice but to abstain from the OIC meeting.

It is thus, another diplomatic victory for India. “The Islamic states have refrained from backing Pakistan, and the country appears to be completely isolated. While speaking at the Pakistani Parliament, the Foreign Minister Qureshi expressed regret over the matter. “Pakistan entered into the war for the Islamic nations. Albeit, they do not value us and on the contrary, consider India to be closer to them”, the Pakistani media criticised.

“Despite the differences, Pakistan should’ve attended the meet. The countries before which Pakistan begs, would not consider any of its demands seriously. The Islamic countries would rather assign more importance to India which holds very significant economic and political clout. It is a fact our nation needs to accept and then accordingly determine its policies,” some Pakistani representatives and analysts said. Moreover, some responsible journalists have also said that ‘Pakistan should remain mindful that in case a war breaks out with India, the Islamic nations would not offer their support to us’.

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