Pakistan's narrative outclassed India on Pulwama incident: Fawad

ISLAMABAD: Minister for Information and Broadcasting Chaudhry Fawad Hussain Wednesday said Pakistan outclassed India on Pulwama incident with its narrative, as Prime Minister Imran Khan opted for peace, isolating India and leaving PM Modi in a weak position.

He was speaking at a media workshop on “Hybrid Warfare and Pakistan’s Readiness: Time for National Narrative Construct and Strategic Foresight”, organized by Islamabad Policy Research Institute (IPRI).

The minister said Pulwama incident was the foremost test in which Pakistan outclassed India as the Government and ISPR made coordinated effort and for the first time, India became isolated and the world affirmed that Pakistan did make peace efforts.

He said India focused on Pulwama incident but the whole world noted that the incident was meant to ensure victory for Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in upcoming elections while Indian PM put million people at stake.

Fawad said hybrid warfare was a major discussion point in contemporary world, adding the advanced countries in technology were debating about this form of propaganda.

He noted that for the first time propaganda warfare was organized in 500 BC and adopted as a war tool.

The intellectuals like Chanakya in the Potohar region and Machiavelli in his book Prince, dwelt on the topic of propaganda.

In the modern warfare, kinetic war had become secondary and hybrid propaganda war had assumed primary position, he added.

He said after 1950s, no country had annexed another country contrary to what happened in the past, when kings occupied other countries and looted their resources.

After 1950 as the political philosophy and technology developed and after atomic bombs devastated Nagasaki and Hiroshima, there was realization that war had become very dangerous and since then, there was no instance of occupation of another country, he said.

He said the only example after 1950 was annexation of Kuwait by Iraq but it also had to withdraw, adding in the cases of Afghanistan and Syria, nobody declared them as part of their territory and in the present evolutionary process, hybrid warfare had taken over.

The hybrid warfare had two components; idea and its presentation.

“If the idea is not strong and weighty, then its presentation cannot be good,” he added.

The minister said extremism and terrorism started in Pakistan and the region in 1980s when West was supporting setting up of certain type of organizations due to stalemate in Afghanistan.

In the past, nothing was done to promote narrative of Pakistan on the issues of terrorism and extremism and not a single book was written in West about its narrative, he noted.

He pointed out that in the previous years, international media was sent out of Pakistan, which based itself in Delhi and now it was falsely hoped that they would highlight the narrative of Pakistan.

He said for the first time, he made an effort to turn Ministry of Information into tool of the state, instead of making it spokesperson of a political party without any narrative.

Reforms would be initiated to improve performance of External Publicity Wing of his ministry and social media would be used to promote narrative of Pakistan, he added.

He said social media of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf was pioneered by top PTI leadership to put across their message on issues of bad governance and corruption.

Fawad said his effort was to bring back international media to Islamabad – a beautiful and serene city of the sub-continent - there was no comparison between it and New Delhi where all the international media was now based.

He said regime of visa and no objection certificates was changed and “we are bringing in foreigners and want to open Pakistan for journalists.

"We want them to see our beautiful country and people.

 So in the next few years, the agenda was to reform Information Ministry, he said adding according to vision of the Prime Minister, Pakistan was being opened and it would be transformed into an open state instead of making it a security state.

“We are transforming and for that we need international media outlets.

It is necessary that they come to Pakistan.

We will facilitate international media so that a true picture can be presented to the world.” 

The Minister said the past governments used Ministry of Information as a political tool and heavy amounts were being allocated for Associated Press of Pakistan, Radio Pakistan and Pakistan Television.

He said reforms and modernization would be undertaken in the state media from current year.

He said Pakistan achieved success on the issue of opening of Kartarpur border corridor as it was part of its efforts to take care of minorities.