When ‘Scholars’ become Pawns of The Propagandists

By Shahid R. Siddiqi, Axis of Logic

Among those who lay claim to scholarship, yet instead of being objective in their analysis they openly promote bias, readily lend their pen to support vested interests and put their 'scholarly stamp of approval' on false propaganda to lend credibility, Mr. Selig Harrison immediately comes to mind.

At times in league with the Indian propagandists, and finding a willing partner in New York Times where his articles generally find space – he engages in smear campaign against Pakistan. In this, his ability of crystal ball gazing comes handy too.

In 2006, Mr. Harrison, who styles himself as a specialist on Balochistan, saw in his crystal ball the success of Baloch insurgency movements which he reported in his articles in the New York Times and the French newspaper Le Monde Diplomatique. He predicted that the world would soon see a Free Balochistan, an entity that would also include the Iranian Balochistan & Sistan province. Promoting a Pentagon dream authored by a retired Col. Ralph Peter in his treatise 'Blood Borders', Mr. Harrison also predicted that Sindhis will join hands with the Balochis.

Gilgit Baltistan

While he awaits that dream to come true, Mr. Harrison chose this time to adopt the script of the Indian propagandists about Pakistan's Northern Areas, now called Gilgit Baltistan. If in the process he made some gross misstatements, it is another matter. In his piece in the New York Times of August 26, captioned 'China's Discreet Hold on Pakistan's Northern Borderlands', Mr. Harrison claimed that: “A quiet geopolitical crisis is unfolding in the Himalayan borderlands of northern Pakistan, where Islamabad is handing over de facto control of the strategic Gilgit-Baltistan region in the northwest corner of disputed Kashmir to China”. He went on to state that the Chinese had deployed 7,000-11,000 troops in the area.

During his crystal ball gazing, Mr. Harrison rightly saw some Chinese faces in the Gilgit Baltistan region. But he made two errors: he counted their numbers wrong and he mistook the coveralls of the Chinese workers for military uniforms. They were neither 7,000 to 11,000 in number nor were they troops of the People's Liberation Army. In fact, they were either humanitarian team members sent by the Chinese Government at Pakistan's request to help in rescue and relief work for 25,000 people stranded after recent heavy floods and landslides, or they were construction workers engaged in the repair of Karakoram Highway and undertaking communication infrastructure projects along with Pakistani counterparts, under government to government arrangement.

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