From ‘Enemies’ to ‘Patriotic Brothers’: Pakistan’s Cynical U-Turn Exposes Its Rot

Pakistan’s latest about-face on the protests in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir is not statesmanship. It is the desperate flailing of a system that has long treated the people of PoK as disposable subjects rather than citizens. Just days after Defence Minister Khawaja Asif branded the demonstrators “enemies like India,” Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s adviser Rana Sanaullah has discovered that 99 per cent of those linked to the banned Joint Awami Action Committee are “our patriotic brothers.” The sudden conversion from terrorists and traitors to patriotic kin tells you everything about the hollow, opportunistic character of the Pakistani state.

For months, ordinary people in PoK have taken to the streets against soaring prices, electricity tariffs, governance failures, and a legislative setup designed to keep real power in Islamabad’s hands. The 12 reserved “refugee” seats have long served as a convenient tool for Pakistani parties to install compliant governments. When the Joint Awami Action Committee mobilised against this arrangement and broader neglect, the response was classic: ban the group under anti-terrorism laws, impose internet blackouts, deploy force, and open fire. Dozens of civilians have been killed. The toll since June stands at least at 90. Hospitals were reportedly taken over, medical help obstructed, and journalists kept out. This is the real face of “Azad” Kashmir.

Then the elections arrived, staged in phases under the shadow of violence and boycott calls. The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, already on course for a comfortable majority after the first two rounds, suddenly needed calm more than confrontation. The same voices that justified the crackdown by claiming Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan elements had infiltrated the protests now speak of dialogue and brotherhood. Sanaullah promises that once the PML-N forms the government with a two-thirds majority, resolving the “issue” will be the first task. Shehbaz Sharif himself has begun talking of sitting at the table. The timing is transparent. Votes first, principle never.

This is not an isolated lapse. It is the operating system of a country that lectures the world on Kashmir while running an occupation marked by economic extraction, political subordination, and periodic repression. The people of PoK are useful when they serve the narrative of unfinished business with India. The moment they demand basic rights from their supposed liberators, they become enemies. When electoral arithmetic demands it, they are rebranded as patriots. Consistency is a luxury Pakistan’s establishment cannot afford.

The tragedy is compounded by the farce of the elections themselves. Candidates must affirm accession to Pakistan. Internet shutdowns and security clampdowns have turned the process into a controlled exercise rather than a genuine expression of popular will. Social media activists call it a complete farce intended to camouflage illegal occupation and human rights abuses. The international community’s muted response only emboldens the pattern.

Pakistan’s rulers have perfected the art of saying one thing while doing another. They speak of the Kashmiri cause while denying the people under their control the most elementary political agency. They invoke jihad and solidarity when it suits them and deploy the state’s full coercive machinery when locals refuse to stay silent. The rapid shift from “enemies” to “patriotic brothers” is not evidence of learning or maturity. It is evidence of cynicism and weakness.

A state that cannot treat its own occupied population with consistency or basic dignity has no moral standing to lecture anyone. The protests in PoK have ripped away the propaganda. What remains is a familiar, pathetic spectacle: a failing establishment that changes its language the moment power calculations demand it, leaving the dead and the disillusioned to pay the real price.