Pakistan's road-map to ridiculous political absurdities

Written by Manohar Shyam Joshi, <em>Mungerilal Ke Haseen Sapne</em> was quite a popular Indian television series just before the arrival of satellite television in the early 1990s. It was about a man too fond of daydreaming and was watched and loved by many in the neighboring Pakistan too, especially in the areas close to the border.
<p dir="ltr">Shah Mahmood Hussain Qureshi, the Foreign Minister of Pakistan and his boss PM Imran Khan are together binge-watching the popular series again these days.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Both are daydreaming of unfurling Pakistan flag in Srinagar. First they renamed Islamabad's Kashmir highway road as Srinagar Road and then released a new 'political map' of the country Tuesday which India rightly called as “an exercise in political absurdity."</p>
"Our eyes are on Srinagar and the day is not far away when we will offer prayers in the mosque of Srinagar with our Kashmiri brothers," <em>Mungerilal</em> Qureshi said in the Pakistani capital a few days ago while announcing the renaming of the highway.

The renaming formalities will be done today on the first anniversary of abrogation of Article 370 in Kashmir.

<img class="alignnone wp-image-8260 size-full" src="https://indianarrative.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/srinagar-islamabad-highway1.jpg" alt="" width="567" height="911" />

Hoardings and new direction signage have been put up on the renamed highway in Islamabad with the distance to Indian cities like Srinagar, Leh and Jammu calculated and mentioned.

Silly politicians have turned Pakistan into the laughing stock of the continent once again. Qureshi and his boss are being ridiculed and become a butt of jokes on social media for wasting public money on foolish exercise.

"If naming a road is enough to claim 'Srinagar', better rename Islamabad as Delhi, problem solved!" tweeted Ahmed Mustafa Kanjoo, a Pakistani.

Sarmad Iqbal, a senior journalist who's working with the leading daily 'The Nation' said: "Renaming Kashmir Road to Srinagar Road may be the single most useless thing this country has done for the people of Kashmir; followed closely by that paint-by-numbers song."

With Pakistan's economy sinking like never before, Imran Khan and his cabinet have spent millions over the last fortnight planning programmes and rallies leading up to August 5. This includes Imran Khan visiting Muzaffarabad in Pakistan occupied Kashmir Wednesday (sorry, he can't travel beyond on Srinagar highway!), release of postage stamps, rallies and what not.

"<em>Bhaarat waasiyon, kapre ka ek baner chipka diya hai.. Sri Nager highway… Ab to Raasta clear hai… Moorakh yeh bhool jaate hain keh</em> Road are always two ways. It cannot be one way. <em>Bhaarti sena issi road se aaegi</em>," tweeted Arif Aajakia, a human rights and social media activist on the move to rename Kashmir highway by the Pakistani government. (Indians, look what Pakistanis have done. They've hung banners with Srinagar highway printed on it and are thinking that road is all clear now. These fools don't know that roads are always two ways and the Indian army will come from this road only one day)
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p dir="ltr" lang="en">To re-name Kashmir Road as Srinagar Road wont bring Srinagar into Pakistan.We'll become a laughing stock for the whole world for sure.Who gives such stupid ideas to IK we don't know.But it's extremely ridiculous.We must step up our efforts to help Kashmiris.</p>
— KHAWAR IKRAM KHAN (@khavar_ikram) <a href="https://twitter.com/khavar_ikram/status/1290326742192840710?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 3, 2020</a></blockquote>
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Meanwhile the people of Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) are waiting and wondering when their lives would change just like those across the border in India have changed in the last one year.

They are desperate to take the road less traveled or waiting for the Indian army to arrive soon, via Srinagar road!.