Why Yasin Malik's wife is part of new Pakistan government

On August 18, Pakistan appointed Mushaal Hussein Mullick — wife of jailed Kashmiri separatist leader Yasin Malik — as a special adviser to the country's newly appointed caretaker Prime Minister Anwaarul Haq Kakar. This came in the wake of the dissolution of the National Assembly of Pakistan, when the name of Kakar, the 52-year-old ethnic Pushtun leader from the Balochistan Awami Party — who is considered close to the powerful military — was unanimously chosen by the then PM Shehbaz Sharif and the leader of opposition to oversee the upcoming elections.Mushaal, whose name was included in the Special Adviser to Prime Minister (SAPM) list, part of the 19-member caretaker cabinet, will focus on human rights and women’s empowerment with the status of minister of state. (A special adviser has a lower status than a junior minister but provides assistance to the prime minister on key issues.) medium103011191Her appointment has raised concerns in India as she has been vocal on Kashmir. Moreover in May this year, her husband Yasin Malik was sentenced to life imprisonment by a trial court in a terror-funding case. The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has also approached the Delhi high court seeking the death penalty for Malik.The general elections are set to be delayed as Pakistan’s Election Commission has decided to conduct a fresh delimitation of constituencies on the basis of the new census. According to the schedule announced by the Election Commission of Pakistan, the delimitation will be completed on December 14, beyond the 90-day period to hold polls after the dissolution of the assembly.What do we know about Mushaal?Born in Lahore and brought up in Islamabad, she is the daughter of the late MA Hussein Mullick, a professor of economics at Bonn University, Germany, and Quaid-e-Azam University, Islamabad, and Rehana Hussein Mullick, a former politician who once served as the secretary general of Pakistan Muslim League - Nawaz (PML-N) Women Wing. Her brother, Haider Ali Hussein Mullick, is a foreign policy analyst based in Washington, DC, and a lecturer at the Naval Postgraduate School. Her sister, Sabien Hussein Mullick, is a social worker.In 2009, Mushaal, a young postgraduate from the London School of Economics, married Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) leader Mohammad Yasin Malik, almost 20 years her senior, in Rawalpindi. The two met while Malik was on a tour of Pakistan in 2005. It was at a function where she first heard him recite the words of Pakistani poet Faiz Ahmad Faiz during a speech. medium103012606In an article for Open in January 28, 2010, Rahul Pandita writes: “In Kashmir as well, the news of their engagement was met with disbelief. It even invited the wrath of separatist leaders like Asiya Andrabi, leader of Kashmir’s all-women organisation Dukhteran-e-Millat. ‘If he talks about azaadi, Yasin should have married one of the widows who lost their husbands to jihad in Kashmir,’ she remarks.”After the arrest of her husband on February 22, 2019, which also happened to be the couple’s 10th wedding anniversary, Mushaal settled in Islamabad, where she now lives with her now 11-year-old daughter Razia Sultana. Mushaal is known for her activism in human rights. She is chairperson of the Peace and Culture Organisation, a non-governmental initiative in Islamabad, which works “towards regional and global harmony, alongside campaigning for a peaceful settlement to the Kashmir conflict as per the wishes of its people”. medium nocaption103014855What her appointment means for IndiaDoes her appointment signify a shift in policy of Pakistan towards India, especially over raising the issue of alleged human-rights violations in Kashmir? According to Farzana Bari, who earlier served as director of the gender studies department at Quaid-e-Azam University in Islamabad, it does.“It sends a signal to India that because of her commitment to raising issues pertaining human-rights violations across the border she has been made a minister,” he says. “She hasn’t been very active in raising issues pertaining to human-rights violations in Pakistan. This leads me to believe her focus will be largely international centric.” Her appointment also seems to have taken many by surprise. “I think she will focus on Kashmir. Being part of the cabinet will allow her access to international interlocutors and that's perhaps the whole idea behind her appointment,” notes journalist Kamran Yousuf. But he is unsure how strong an impact she will have. “There is no bilateral engagement between the two countries at this stage. Had there been some level of talk between the two countries, her appointment would have had a different impact. Chances of India officially taking up the issue with Pakistan are also slim. And even if India does — like summoning the Pakistani envoy in New Delhi — this may hardly compel Pakistan to reverse its decision.” medium103011297Former Pakistan high commissioner to India Abdul Basit, who spent a three-year term (2014-17) based in New Delhi, feels differently. “Her appointment is not Kashmir centric, her mandate is beyond just that,” he says. “Whatever time she has at her disposal, whether three months or six months [before the general elections], one can expect that she will focus on improving Pakistan’s own human-rights record. Pakistan is party to many international human-rights conventions, so she will hopefully try her best to ensure Pakistan is in complete adherence to those international commitments. As far as Pakistan’s policy with regard to Kashmir is concerned, I do not see any change because this government does not have a mandate to go beyond national consensus.”Basit is also quick to dismiss the view from India that Mushaal’s appointment is an indication of a sabotage plan in Kashmir. “I do not feel that her appointment will have any significant impact on India and Pakistan’s relations, at large,” he says. In India, according to reports, experts feel the move comes in the backdrop of Pakistan’s attempts to raise the issue of the abrogation of Article 370 in J&K by the government in India and, more recently, the G20 meetings hosted by India in Srinagar. Also, her inclusion in the caretaker government is also an attempt to “placate PoK [Pakistan occupied Kashmir] amid its deteriorating economy”. Why else would a ‘politically inactive’ person be sworn in the new cabinet?