Hina Rabbani Khar is, has been and will be one of the most powerful women in Asia. She was Foreign Minister of Pakistan, the only Muslim nuclear power, when she was only 33 years old. During the last term – there will be elections in January – she has been formally vice minister, with the international portfolio reserved for the young heir of her Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), Bilawal Bhutto Zardari.
As soon as the interview in Qatar with La Vanguardia began, Rabbani Khar congratulated Pedro Sánchez “for having been the first to speak clearly”, in reference to the excesses of the Israeli army in Gaza. “The president of Spain has my respect and I know that is being appreciated. Many voices reach me. “You are gaining visibility.”
Rabbani-Khar speaks with a confident and deep voice, wrapped in a pearl necklace even bigger than the one that, in 2011, “made half of New Delhi salivate.” Those were the words of an Indian journalist, who also drew attention to “her Roberto Cavalli sunglasses, her Birkin bag and her Jimmy Choo heels”, nuances of a haute couture geopolitics that must have left the very Veteran Indian diplomat H.M. Krishna.
Not in vain, Rabbani Khar belongs to the same school of democratic begums as her cabinet colleague, Sherry Rehman, or the martyr Benazir Bhutto. Ladies of high society from Karachi, Lahore or Islamabad who do not apologize for showing off their status, which is also their safe conduct in a sexist – and classist – society like few others. At the Doha forum, at the round table on “China-US rivalry”, she watches the minutes on her discreet gold watch.
– Does the resurrection of Palestine on the international agenda while no one remembers Kashmir make you jealous?
– Naturally, although jealousy is not the word. They are two central and parallel issues, because they started at the same time, with the same legitimacy. In both cases, with resolutions approved by the General Assembly that are vetoed by one or another member of the Security Council, guaranteeing impunity. India has followed the same script as Israel and the same will happen to them.
– Just a year and a half ago, the emir of Qatar seemed like an untimely character defending the Palestinian cause at this Doha Forum. For two months now, Palestine has been on the table again. Could any diplomatic advance force India to make a move?
– I hope so, but I’m not that optimistic.
– Narendra Modi is not only a great friend of Netanyahu but also of Trump. What would a return of this change?
– In reality, Pakistani governments tend to understand each other worse with the US when the Democrats are in power.
– With Democrats in Washington, Imran Khan met with Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin a few hours after he gave the order to invade Ukraine. Today, former Prime Minister Jan is in jail [formally, for keeping courtesy gifts from foreign leaders or the proceeds of their sale]
– I wouldn’t make that connection [slight smile]
– Your party, the PPP, had its cross in the army for many years, but last year, thanks to it, it returned to power. [shared with his former Pakistan Muslim League rivals, PML-N, following the no-confidence motion against Jan]
– We returned to power on our own merits.
– The return of the Taliban to power in Kabul was experienced by many Pakistanis as their own victory. Has the awakening been bitter, with its closure, its washing its hands of the terrorist surge inside Pakistan or skirmishes on the border?
– That’s right, all that has opened our eyes. But the thing is, we have to deal with whoever rules Afghanistan.
– Is it difficult to be a minister in a country with so many retrograde forces?
– If I cover my hair it is not because of any man, it is out of respect for my own culture.
– What does Benazir Bhutto mean to you?
– She represents the sacrifices for democracy.
– Her son relegated her to Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, years after having been minister of the field.
– (Smiles) I don’t feel like I was relegated. Quite simply, party president Bilawal Bhutto Zardari did not achieve the goal of being prime minister and became foreign minister.
– You have just spoken, along with speakers from Mexico, South Africa and South Korea, on the role of middle powers in the rivalry between the US and China. But Islamabad’s drift towards Beijing, slowly but surely, to the detriment of the United States, is evident, although it has been attenuated under the last government.
– But those who want to see this complicity as something new are wrong. There has always been close proximity between Pakistan and China.
– How will the completion of the China-Pakistan corridor, between Xinjiang and the new port of Gwadar, in the Arabian Sea, change international relations?
-It is still in the first phase, but the trip between Islamabad and my town (Muzzafarnagharh), which previously took six or seven hours, is now done in four.
– Why are there so many attacks, claimed even by the Islamic State, against the China-Pakistan corridor?
– I think India recruits people to make them. [India also accuses Pakistan of doing the same, often with evidence, as in the 2008 Mumbai assault]
