The 'get Pakistan' syndrome: PART-I.

Pakistan is cornered, isolated and in dire economic straits; this perhaps is the grossest understatement of our times. How has Pakistan come to this pass? Is this part of an unfolding grand strategic design of global powers as they ruthlessly and portentously pursue their vital national interests in Asia/South Asia? Is it the result of rank incompetence of Pakistan's ruling elites? Or worse; are they complicit, wittingly or otherwise, in furthering this grand strategic design of the powers-that-be? Is the grand strategic design aimed at exploiting this incompetence or crucially, have incompetents been deliberately maneuvered into position for achieving specific objectives of this grand strategic design? Ominously, all hypotheses appear to converge at this most fateful of times for Pakistan. India sponsored cross border terrorism from Afghanistan and Iran continues to further compound the already vitiated strategic environment.

The contours of this grand strategic design will crystallize and emerge sooner than later. It ostensibly aims at isolating China and defeating the formidable Sino-Russo Combine, piecemeal. The end state also visualizes India as playing a significant role in attaining western objectives of circumscribing China's meteoric rise. This would entail blocking the expansion of the BRI-CPEC further south to the Arabian Sea/Indian Ocean and into the Greater Middle East Region (GMER), Africa, the Mediterranean, Europe and beyond. All powers that could presumably keep India from fulfilling its assigned roles/tasks thus have to be neutralized to give it a free and uninterrupted run against China. To those ends, a strategic partnership between global and regional powers exists; their vital national interests converge against China and menacingly sweep Pakistan in their wake, too!

In the GMER/Asian/South Asian contexts, the China-Pakistan strategic partnership is of vital importance, bilaterally and for the region. Apparently, breaking up this partnership is cardinal and critical to the successful implementation of this grand strategic design. Pakistan has been deftly maneuvered, by default or design, to a state where it is now in grave danger of imploding and splitting. Its political stability, economic viability and territorial integrity are all at stake. The western powers would like the BRI-CPEC to be brought to a grinding halt as it threatens their dominance of global economies. So, they would like to see Balochistan carved...