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Thread: Prime Minister Imran Khan was right to raise the issue of Kashmir at the UNGA. He spoke forcefully about the oppression being unleashed on Kashmir by India, and has rightly worked to draw international attention to it. No other Pakistani leader has ever done this
1. Except Shahid Khaqan Abbasi in 2017. 
2. And Nawaz Sharif in 2014 (and all his other appearances at the UNGA)
3. And Shah Mehmood Qureshi in 2010 (when he was, coincidentally, Foreign Minister in the PPP government).
4. And General Musharraf in 2001 (he was very conciliatory in later appearances, by the way).
5. Benazir Bhutto in 1996 (a particularly impassioned and eloquent speech).
6. Here's Zia-ul-Haq in 1980. Didn't have much to say about Kashmir but did wax eloquently on Islam, the Middle East, and (understandably) Afghanistan.
7. ZAB had a few things to say about Kashmir as well... in 1964, when he was Ayub Khan's Foreign Minister
8. And finally we have Ch. Zafarullah Khan, Pakistan's first foreign minister, kicking things off by calling the UN's attention to Kashmir in 1949.
9. None of this detracts from Imran Khan's attempts to 'internationalize' the Kashmir issue. Indeed, much of what he said is welcome. Instead, it just serves to remind us that Kashmir has always been central to Pakistan's foreign policy and the establishment's security anxieties.
10. More importantly, having gone through pages and pages of speeches (so you don't have to, you're welcome), it is clear that the stance taken on Kashmir varies depending on the broader context... as does the rhetoric used.
11. Zia and Musharraf, for example,didn't say that much. Zia had Afghanistan to worry about, and armed conflict in Kashmir didn't resurface until 1989. Musharraf, some may remember, was reportedly close to solving the issue with a plan to accept the LoC as a border.
12. In contrast, ZAB under Ayub Khan was speaking at a time of heightened Indo-Pak tensions, just as BB (and Nawaz in the 1990s) were articulating the establishment line on the Kashmiri freedom movement after 1989.
13. Yet, when the PPP and Nawaz pushed for a softer line with India post-2008, much as Musharraf himself had, they were labelled traitors who were weak on Kashmir.
14. Imran Khan's rhetoric and forcefulness make sense given what India is doing in Kashmir at the moment. Again, the similarities between his speech yesterday and BB's in 1996 are eerie (except, of course, for the reference to nuclear weapons).
15. Finally, IK's rhetorical style seems close to that of ZAB and BB at the UNGA (unsurprising), but also to Zia-ul-Haq. Make of that what you will.
