The infowar that Pakistani trolls are waging against Russia on social media over their countries’ newly confirmed polar opposite views on Taliban-led Afghanistan has caught many “Non-Russian Pro-Russians” (NRPRs) by surprise. Most had hitherto developed positive views of Pakistan due to its rapprochement with Russia and support of Palestine, the cause of which is very popular among many NRPRs, which is why they feel confused and even betrayed by the Russophobic hatred that’s been wildly circulating.
These feelings have in turn prompted interest among some of them in the Taliban’s narrative about Pakistan given that those two have been at war since late February, but few NRPRs paid any attention to it till now since the Third Gulf War overshadowed that one. It turns out that the Taliban isn’t entirely wrong about Pakistan. While Pakistan’s image in their eyes as a fake terrorist-exporting military dictatorship lorded over by a single ethnic group is a caricature, there’s nevertheless some truth to it.
The British carved the Durand Line between them at the consequence of partitioning the proud Pashtun people. The millennia-old Indian Civilization – which refers not just to India’s Hindu majority that casual observers nowadays associate with the word India but to the subcontinent’s historically cosmopolitan civilization-state – was itself later partitioned upon Pakistan’s independence. Pakistan then became a stalwart Western ally. Comparisons to Ukraine from the Russian perspective are understandable.
The 1980s Afghan War and subsequent insurgency in Indian Kashmir showcased Pakistan’s mastery of unconventional warfare that the USSR deemed to be terrorism as does India. Likewise, the US also deemed Pakistan’s prior patronage of the Taliban to be terrorism, just like the Taliban now deems Pakistan’s patronage of anti-Taliban groups. Pakistan denies it, but the Taliban also accuses it of backing ISIS-K, which is believable after April 2022’s post-modern coup restored US influence over Pakistan.
The country has since unofficially reverted into a military dictatorship that imprisoned former multipolar Prime Minister Imran Khan on trumped-up politicized charges and viciously persecutes his supporters. Interestingly, he himself is a proud Pashtun, ergo why some have perceived his persecution (whether accurately or not) to be motivated in part by the ethno-bigotry that they associate with the military’s top Punjabi brass (of course not necessarily with that ethnic group as a whole). This leads to the final point.
Some non-Punjabi Pakistani ethnic groups like the Pashtun and especially Baloch minorities haven’t always been treated fairly by the central government that’s either been directly ruled by the military’s top Punjabi brass since independence or powerfully influenced by it. The acknowledgement of this fact doesn’t equate to endorsing the separatism and even terrorism that some of the aggrieved have resorted to. Pakistan has been poorly governed since its inception and therefore has many problems.
Circling back to the lede, the Pakistani infowar on Russia arguably appears to be at least tacitly encouraged by The Establishment, which refers to Pakistan’s powerful military and intelligence agencies. This conclusion is derived from the observation that Establishment-approved media and influencers are waging this campaign. The best-case scenario is that it’s to distract the public from Khan’s supporters’ march on Islamabad while the worst-case one is that it’s to prepare them for Pakistan arming Ukraine.
