Kashmir as Pakistan’s Primary Distracter: Amid severe internal challenges (terrorism in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan insurgency, unrest in PoJK/Gilgit-Baltistan), Islamabad is launching a new diplomatic campaign on Kashmir in the UK and Europe to divert public attention, treating the issue as its “infallible and greatest distracter.”

History of Failed Internationalization Efforts: Previous attempts, especially after India’s 2019 abrogation of Article 370, yielded no results at the UNSC or elsewhere; the UN invoked the Simla Agreement instead of old resolutions, and Pakistani leaders themselves have privately acknowledged the limited prospects of success.

Domestic Political Utility Over Realistic Outcomes: The campaign is driven by leadership needs to manage public discontent rather than expectation of tangible gains; the article argues Pakistan should prioritize resolving its own crises before focusing on territorial claims against India.

Mother of all Distracters

With Pakistan reeling under widespread internal unrest ranging from home grown terrorism in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa [KP], an armed secessionist movement in Balochistan, unprecedented public discontent in Pakistan occupied Jammu and Kashmir [PoJK] including Gilgit Baltistan, one would have expected that Islamabad would focus on setting its own house in order. That’s why the news that Pakistan would be launching a diplomatic campaign to internationalise the Kashmir issue in the UK and Europe must have come as a surprise to the uninitiated.

However, Pakistan watchers had anticipated this because Kashmir was, is and will remain to be, the country’s infallible and greatest ‘distracter’. Having been brought up believing that it is their country’s shah rag [jugular vein] and the “unfinished agenda of partition,” mere mention of Kashmir is enough to whip up such mass hysteria in Pakistan that immediately diverts public attention from other pressing domestic issues- no matter how grave they are.

The last time Islamabad undertook a massive and concerted international diplomatic offensive on Kashmir was in 2019 after New Delhi abrogated Article 370 of the Indian constitution. Despite knowing that nothing would come out as being India’s internal affair, no country or international organisation could do anything about........

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