So how does one make sense of what two senior members of the Nawaz government told the Senate on Tuesday? Adviser to Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz informed the house that India’s RAW was involved in terrorist activities in Pakistan while Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar confirmed reports in the Indian media that his government had shared intelligence with India of about 10 to 15 terrorists who had crossed into its territory from Pakistan. Is this government for real?

Does it make sense for the government to share intelligence with a country that it blames for targeting us with terrorists? The Interior Minister claims that by passing on this information, whatever its worth, his government has saved the state of Pakistan from being blamed by India for the activities of non-state actors. Given the problematic relations between the two countries and the hostile posturing of the Modi government, this is wishful thinking at best.

In the absence of any indication that India has changed its policy to blame us as a knee-jerk reflex for every act of terrorism that takes place on its territory and to prove to the world that Pakistan harbours and exports terrorists, I wonder what the Interior Minister’s good faith stems from? Where are the signs that Modi’s India has decided to start a new era of cooperation on counter-terrorism with Pakistan? If such a thing is happening, what was Sartaj Aziz talking about?

Interestingly, he’s the same guy who told the Council on Foreign Relations on his recent trip to the US that not only were the leaders of Afghan Taliban operating out of Pakistan but they were also provided medical facilities here. And though he’s tried to cover it up, saying that he only spoke about having some influence on the Afghan Taliban, what he said there was recorded and reported. Was he authorised by the government to blow a hole in Pakistan’s position on the matter?

So what does one make of the Nawaz government’s unexplainable conduct? Is it just inept and confused, strengthening the position of hostile governments in India and Afghanistan that blame Pakistan for terrorism in their countries? Or is it too eager to please its imperial masters, reinforcing the narrative on terrorism that would like to paint Pakistan as the perpetrator of terrorism rather than its victim and a bulwark against it?

In their attempt not to alienate Pakistan’s security establishment any further, even the US and its allies in the fraudulent War on Terror have softened the narrative that blames Pakistan for harbouring terrorists with words of praise for Zarb-e-Azab and its success in countering terrorism. The narrative has not been shelved completely though. After all, they need to keep it alive to distract attention from the fact that they continue to use proxy Islamic terrorists for destabilisation, not only in Middle East and Africa but also in Afghanistan and its neighbouring countries.

Clearly, Pakistan is not off their do-more hook and is still a target for destabilisation. In addition to the sophisticated propaganda they use to mire efforts for genuine international counter-terrorism cooperation in the smoke of deception, they depend on mouthpieces to amplify their narrative such as the puppet Afghan government and Modi’s India, the mini-me hegemon that they are propping up in the region. The question is: Why is our government strengthening that narrative?

More importantly: Is it sleep-walking into their traps to put Pakistan in a tight corner or is it a willing partner in strengthening a narrative that paints Pakistan as a nursery of terrorism? Is the government so desperate to play cricket and trade with India because it believes that Pakistan’s future depends upon these things or is it following the orders of its imperial masters who are pushing the Pak-India peace process in a direction that guarantees Indian hegemony rather than peace between the two countries.

As Sartaj Aziz and Chaudhry Nisar confounded us with their statements in the Senate, British Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs Philip Hammond arrived in Islamabad to push the devious process some more. In a joint press conference with Sartaj Aziz, he lectured us about speeding up the Pathankot investigation and brushing Kashmir under the carpet. Too eager to follow the imperial script, Sartaj Aziz didn’t think it necessary to talk about the involvement of India in terrorist activities on Pakistani soil and assured him that the investigation was progressing. Of course, he said nothing about perpetrators of terrorism like Altaf Hussain and Hizbut Tahrir that Britain harbours and protects.

The Nawaz government’s idea of our national interest boils down to following the imperial script and collaboration with mini-me hegemons of the empire like India and Saudi Arabia. It is eager to enhance intelligence sharing with India, a country it blames for terrorism on our soil. It talks about developing a narrative to counter terrorism with Saudi Arabia, the country that developed the narrative of terrorism.

When heaven is at an arm’s distance, it is leading us straight to hell.

It is the personal interests of the ruling coterie that blinds them. Otherwise, it is not hard to see that peace with India and in our region will never come about by following the imperial script written by the masters of divide-and-rule. The Pak-India peace-process directed by them serves many inter-related purposes. It is designed to build India as a South-Asian mini-me hegemon and pit it against China. They’d like to see Pakistan as a subservient satellite of India rather than a partner of China. They’d like to weaken us by pitting us against each other, and rule us all in the end, even their mini-me hegemon India.

Peace with India is a good thing but, for it to be meaningful, it must be pursued within the framework of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. The framework of relationship between countries being defined by the China-Russia nexus is based on principles of peace not power and greed; principles of equality between nations and respect for international law. This will ensure a win-win solution for the peoples of both Pakistan and India.