S.
M. Hali
Historically, the relationship between
Pakistan and Iran has been exemplary. Iran was the first country to recognize
Pakistan as a sovereign nation after it gained independence in August 1947.
Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Pakistan’s founder, was the progenitor of
close relations with Iran and had appointed one of his trusted lieutenants,
Raja Ghazanfar Ali Khan as Pakistan’s first Ambassador to Iran. In May 1949,
Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan paid his first state visit to Iran while the
Shah of Iran became the first foreign head of state to visit Pakistan in March
1950.
Trials and tribulations faced by both
countries including internal strife and wars, enabled each to extend vital
support to the other. During the Abadan Crisis (1951-54) Iran nationalized the
Iranian assets of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company and expelled Western companies
from oil refineries at Abadan. Pakistan refused to side with the West despite
pressures from the Occident. Pak-India Wars of 1965 and 1971 saw Iran extending
unequivocal support to Pakistan; condemning India for aggression, providing
vital medical and oil supplies and purchasing ninety F-86 Mk.6 Sabre jet
fighters from West Germany for Pakistan after the US embargoed Pakistan’s defence
supplies. Iran physically assisted Pakistan in quelling the Baloch insurgency
erupting after the dismemberment of East Pakistan in 1971. Strains in the
Pak-Iran relations became discernible in 1974 when Pakistan hosted the Islamic
Conference in Lahore and Shah of Iran declined the invitation because of Libyan
dictator Colonel Muammar Gaddafi also being invited. Iran’s response to India’s
nuclear test in 1974 remained muted despite Pakistan’s endeavors to eke a
censure. Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto’s Endeavour to secure Iranian monetary support for
Pakistan’s clandestine nuclear weapons program as well as asking his “good
friend” the Shah of Iran to “guarantee” a $300 million loan that Pakistan had
requested of Citibank of New York; met with cold shoulder.
Bhutto was ousted by General
Zia-ul-Haq in 1977 while eighteen months later the Shah of Iran was also
deposed by a religious revolution led by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. In 1979,
Pakistan was one of the first countries in the world to recognize the revolutionary
regime in Iran, whom it also supported militarily during the Iran-Iraq War
(1980-88). Unfortunately, subsequent events began to sour relations between the
erstwhile allies. Pakistan failed to officially condemn the massacre of Shia
pilgrims during the 1987 Makah Incident. The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in
1979 exposed a divergence in the focus; Pakistan’s covert support was for the
largely Sunni Pashtun groups while Iran chiefly propped up the Shia Tajik
faction.
Zia-ul-Haq tried to extend his illegitimate
rule by relying on religious schisms, which purportedly also gave rise to the
persecution of Shias by extremist Sunni groups and retaliatory targeting of
Sunni leaders by Shias. Zia-ul-Haq himself perished in a mysterious plane crash
on August 17, 1988. Some analysts point fingers at Iran’s possible involvement
in his elimination, purporting Zia’s culpability for the murder of scores of
Shias including Allama Ariful Hussaini, the chief of
Tehreek-e-Nifaz-e-Fiqh-i-Jafaria, the largest Shia organization in Pakistan. Irrespective,
Zia’s assassination did not quell sectarianism in Pakistan but amplified it.
The high profile murder of Iranian diplomat Sadiq Ganji in Lahore and the
brutal assassination of Iranian Air Force cadets visiting Pakistan in the early
1990s further widened the chasm. The war on terror and in its aftermath the
rise of notorious sectarian terror groups like Lashkar-e-Jhangvi deliberately
targeting Shias and Hazaras has plunged Pak-Iran relations to its lowest ebb.
The situation has come to such a head
that according to media reports, the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural
Resources notified the federal cabinet’s ECC that Iran has unilaterally ended
the government-to-government IP (Iran-Pakistan) gas pipeline cooperation
agreement with Pakistan, declaring that the project in its present shape has
become unfeasible. Since the advent of the PML (N) government in June 2013,
which is perceived to be pro-Saudi Arabia, the IP project appeared to be in
jeopardy because of Iran-Saudi rivalry. Pakistan’s stance on the Syrian crisis
does not boost Iranian confidence either. Absence of a full time professional
Foreign Minister has hurt Pakistan’s exterior maneuvers immensely. It has had a
bad run of trust deficit with Afghanistan; the new BJP Government in India is
posturing menacingly while shelling Pakistani posts across the LOC as well as
the working boundary, taking a high toll of human lives. Now Iran has jumped
into the fray with its border guards carrying out forays inside Pakistani territory,
killing Frontier Corps personnel and harassing Pakistani citizens, holding them
hostage for hours perhaps in retaliation to Iranian soldiers being abducted and
killed by miscreants earlier this year. To stem the rot, Pakistan needs to
carry out a soul searching exercise to root out the demons in its system. It
must retain old friends with sincerity rather than turn them into foes.
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