Pakistan’s ambassador: Ukrainians ‘have got the mentality of democracy’

Ukraine could learn a lot from Pakistan, whose capital is nearly 5,000 kilometers away from Kyiv.

One of the lessons, in the view of Pakistan Ambassador to Ukraine Zahid Mubashir Sheikh, would have been to keep its nuclear weapons and not give them up, as Ukraine agreed to do in 1994. Pakistan, by contrast, became a nuclear power in 1998.

The difference is stark when it comes to confronting threats from foes – India in Pakistan’s case, Russia in Ukraine’s case. Did Ukraine make a mistake in giving up its Soviet-era nuclear arsenal?

“Honestly speaking, I would say yes,” the ambassador said in an interview with the Kyiv Post ahead of Pakistan Day, a national holiday celebrated on March 23. “Had Ukraine remained a nuclear power today, their position would be different. Those who assured them that Ukrainians don’t need nuclear weapons and the whole world would be with them, that they would be OK — well, nobody fights for you. You have to fight for your own battle.”

Today, Russia occupies 7 percent of Ukraine’s territory, including Crimea and parts of the eastern Donbas.

By contrast, Pakistan noticed a distinctly more respectful change in India’s behavior after Islamabad acquired nuclear weapons. After four wars and other battles with India since the 1947 partition that split the two former British colonies into separate nations, the Pakistani nation of 200 million people feels the strength and security that comes from being the world’s 7th nuclear power.

“Pakistan will never agree to give up our nuclear weapons,” the ambassador said. “This is our survival. To maintain peace, you have to prepare for war.”

Pakistan and India have remained on a war footing since the 1947 partition. Many of the disputes between the neighbors are over the Muslim-majority territory of Kashmir, the Himalaya area governed by India, but claimed by both nations.

Last year, the Indian government of Narendra Modi revoked the territory’s autonomous status and imposed sharp curbs on civil liberties to put down unrest. The harsh measures, combined with persecution and murders of Muslims in India, have kept relations in a “very bad” state.

“Today is the 219th day of the siege of Kashmir,” the Pakistani ambassador said. “People don’t have medicine. They don’t have food in their house. People are being killed, women are being raped, children are being abducted.”

India is home to almost as many Muslims as the entire population of Pakistan. But the persecution of Muslims in India, Sheikh says, proves that the 1947 partition of India and Pakistan “was the wisest step.” He said “a cow gets preference over” Muslims in India.

He said a new citizenship law in India discriminates against Muslims, Christians, and Sikhs. “This might break India,” he said.

Ambassadors from military ranks 

Like all but one of Pakistan’s eight ambassadors to Ukraine, Sheikh comes from the military. He’s a retired major general who ended his service in 2012 after more than 35 years in the army.

He commanded forces in the 1999 Kargil War against India, oversaw nuclear weapons and served as defense attaché in Iran, among other assignments. He arrived in Kyiv a little more than a year ago. The military is a powerful institution in Pakistan – so powerful that officers even have a quota in the diplomatic foreign service.

The reason why Pakistan sends retired military generals to Ukraine is simple: The major component of the bilateral relationship, worth more than $1 billion since the 1990s, comes from military trade. “Mostly Ukraine is selling to Pakistan,” he said.

Pakistan has purchased hundreds of its main battlefield tanks, including the T84UD, from Ukraine, as well as other weaponry. Ukraine services the equipment too. Vadym Nozdria, director of state-owned Ukrspetsexport, estimated the value of Pakistani military purchases at more than $100 million in the last three years. He said the nations are currently in negotiations over a potential $1-billion sale.

Consequently, after more than a quarter-century of doing business, the military side of the relationship is far more advanced than the civilian side. While the chief of Pakistan’s air force and his Ukrainian counterpart have visited each other’s nations, few meetings have taken place among top political leaders in many years.

Also, no trade agreement exists between the two nations. Consequently, bilateral non-military trade was an anemic $135 million in 2019.

Pakistan’s current ambassador feels the chill on the civilian side.

“Unfortunately, the interaction is much less than desired. They rarely give you an appointment to meet,” the ambassador said. “They have two standards for nations: Those who are donors, they have a lot of time to meet them. For those they think are not their donors, it is very difficult to get an appointment with a minister or even a deputy minister.”

Visa hardships

The indifference is acute when it comes to how Pakistani citizens and potential investors are treated, even those with valid visas. “One number I wish to give you: A year before me, 98 people came from Pakistan on a visa and were refused entry. They sent them back.”

After one particularly egregious incident, the ambassador intervened and complained to Ukrainian authorities. Since then, he said, “only two incidents have happened” when Pakistanis were denied entry to Ukraine despite holding valid visas.

“Ukraine is my second home and I don’t want them to have this problem with their reputation,” Sheikh said. He chalks up the hardships to ignorance and a lingering Soviet mindset “that anybody coming to us is a spy.” He noted that “America doesn’t face these problems. Ukraine needs to treat people from India and Pakistan with some dignity.”

Ukraine’s Ambassador to Pakistan, Volodymyr Lakomov, is set to return to Kyiv soon after eight years.

“He learned a lot of things but has not been able to move relations an inch forward, which is very bad,” Sheikh said of his counterpart. “I heard we have to do all ‘wrong things’ to get a visa to Ukraine. This is my gripe with him.”

Lakomov, reached by telephone at the Ukrainian embassy in Islamabad, acknowledged that many Pakistanis “are refused” visas, but said these decisions are made in Kyiv. As for suggestions of bribe-taking, Kyiv’s representative said “corruption in the Ukrainian embassy is zero.” He said both nations are making progress in “overcoming bureaucracy on both sides.”

Lakomov said that he will miss Pakistan when he returns to Ukraine soon. “It’s an interesting country, exotic,” he said. “Right now, I work at the stage when I love this country.”

But his Pakistani counterpart in Kyiv said that, until the Ukrainian government is more welcoming, the investment will not come. “Who would like to invest here if he is doubtful that he will get a visa the next time?”

Impressed with Zelensky

Sheikh’s disappointment doesn’t sour him on President Volodymyr Zelensky. He sees a dynamic new leader and compares Zelensky favorably with Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan.

Both were stars before politics – Zelensky as a comedian and Khan as a world-class cricketer.

“The people of Ukraine were able to bring a common man into the presidency, defeating an oligarch with a huge majority. He swept to the power,” Sheikh marveled at Zelensky’s landslide victory in 2019 over President Petro Poroshenko. “The people have got the mentality of democracy.”

Both leaders, however, have to fight rampant corruption holding back their development.

“The government of Imran Khan today is fighting against corruption. It is not easy to fight against corruption. They are like a mafia,” Sheikh said. “The same as the state here. The field is not easy for Zelensky. He has changed his team — too soon, I think. I think he has to do all the tricks to get rid of corruption. Once a country gets corrupt, it gets instilled in the minds of everybody, and it’s not easy to change. I have a lot of hopes for him. He’s trying his best. This man is good. He has good intentions. He has pain for the poor man.”

The same situation is true with Khan, a philanthropist who has “got an aim in life. He’s not falling for money. He’s loved by the people and popular in the whole world,” Sheikh said.

Neutral in Russia’s war 

Disappointing for Kyiv, however, is Pakistan’s neutrality in Russia’s ongoing war against Ukraine – especially considering its history of territorial disputes with India, a much larger and more powerful neighbor. Pakistan does not support sanctions against the Kremlin and doesn’t declare Moscow the aggressor.

But its ambassador in Kyiv sympathizes with Ukraine.

“Russia is a bigger power. They are in a better position to give. They need to be more graceful and giving,” Sheikh said. “Zelensky has made some progress. They are talking to each other. Our case with India is worse, we don’t talk.”

To end the war, however, he said both nations must compromise. Still, he added, referring to Ukraine’s surrender of nuclear weapons in the 1990s, “the mistake that they made cannot be undone.”