Islamabad: The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor(CPEC) is, from the looks of it, at the center of President Xi Jinping’s masterplan to strengthen economic ties with Africa and Middle-East via Gwadar, Beijing wants ally Islamabad to move the UN Security Council’s 1267 Al Qaida, Taliban and affiliates committee to brand Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) a global terrorist outfit.
The outfit has been engaged in a long drawn struggle for self-determination for the ethnic Baloch people. The BLA has been declared a terrorist organization by Pakistan, UK and US.
While Beijing has guranteed Pakistan of full support to get the BLA declared as global terrorist organisation by the UNSC, Islamabad has its own apprehensions as it feels that the matter should be handled internally and that an UN resolution will only sensationalise the matter by bringing it to international limelight.
According to intelligence inputs based on diplomatic interlocution between the two iron brothers, while China has appreciated Pakistan for supporting the Xi Jinping regime on South China Sea and Hong Kong, it has assured Islamabad full support over the Kashmir issue.
Beijing and Islamabad are currently engaged to sort out a grave financial crisis faced by Pakistan while simultaneously considering Imran Khan government’s request for raising the Kashmir issue at the forthcoming UNGA session next month. When Pakistani interlocutors raised the issue of BLA and East Turkestan Islamic Movement (a Uighur militant group active in Xinjiang and Wakhan corridor), the Chinese diplomats wanted Islamabad to get BLA sanctioned through UNSC 1267 committee. While Islamabad did not want to internationalize the issue by going to UN, it has conveyed to Beijing that suppression of BLA happns to be the Imran Khan government’s top focus.
PNN/Agencies
