Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa spearheaded Pakistan’s exercise to create a province in disputed Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) in the occupied northern areas, holding a quiet meeting with the country’s politicians on the issue before for a minister to make the Islamabad plans public last week. But the military, people familiar with the matter said, is not pushing for the creation of the fifth province alone.
A 39-year-old man has also been working hard. Moeed W Yusuf.
Yusuf, special assistant to Prime Minister Imran Khan in the Division of National Security and Strategic Planning, has been a major player in Islamabad’s decision to revoke the theoretical autonomy granted to Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) and incorporate the disputed region as a of the five provinces of Pakistan. Pakistani observers in New Delhi said, describing Pakistan’s young National Security Adviser as one of the key driving forces behind the project.
Gilgit-Baltistan’s assimilation into the Islamic Republic works well with China, which has invested billions of dollars, even if much of it is a loan, in the China Pakistan Economic Corridor to build an alternative supply route to the Straits of Malacca, drowned and vulnerable. main shipping channel between the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean. The army has increased its presence in the Great Britain region over the years to assure the CPEC that it has faced some opposition from locals out of concern that it will destroy the environment, culture and social fabric without much benefit to the people.
The effort to change the disputed state of Gilgit-Baltistan also fits well with Moeed Yusuf’s long-standing project to turn the Line of Control with India into an International Border. In 2009, when he was still an academic and was establishing his ties to the establishment in Pakistan and the United States, Moeed Yusuf had advocated turning the LoC into the IB, with both parties maintaining sovereign control over the respective parts of Jammu and Kashmir.
An observer from Pakistan said that Moeed Yusuf explored the possibility of formalizing the LoC as the border between the two countries almost a decade later when he visited New Delhi in 2018. “By then, he had entrenched himself in the establishment in Washington through the Institute of United States of Peace and worked closely with the Pakistani Army and Interservice Intelligence, ”he said.
Yusuf had cultivated the image of being a defender of Indo-Pak peace and the resolution of the Kashmir issue at USIP. He ran into some controversy at USIP months before Imran Khan chose him as his special adviser in December 2019, when objections were raised about the publicly funded institution becoming a place of choice to host Pakistani officials. at events reserved for select guests. An expert on South Asia, Dr. Christine Fair, also alleged that Yusuf had been sharing confidential information with Pakistani agencies using his position and access within the USIP.
Moeed Yusuf is said to have continued to speak about his ideas on Indo-Pak relations after joining Imran Khan’s team and connecting the agenda with General Bajwa and other senior military officials.
In his new role on Imran Khan’s team, his understanding and familiarity with the American system helped position him as the leading strategic thinker for the Pakistani leadership, particularly in dealing with the administration, Congress, bureaucracy and think tanks. from the USA
Not much is known about his views on Pakistan’s support of terrorism for political and diplomatic ends, particularly in Kashmir. Indian counterterrorism officials said they had not heard of any cases in which Moeed Yusuf had spoken of ending the establishment’s support for terrorists operating in India.
“What we do know is that he came up with the idea that Pakistan should not seek mediation in Kashmir out of concerns that Islamabad could put itself in an uncomfortable position if the United States came up with a unilateral proposal, similar to the Middle East Plan of Donald Trump. ”Said a senior Indian official. This idea, however, did not find any support within the army and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
.
