(inspired by Leila Al Shami)
Once again, we see a familiar pattern: a section of the self-declared anti-imperialist camp in Pakistan rushes to defend the Pakistani state and its imperial backers in the name of resisting “US hegemony” or “Western imperialism.” But strip away the slogans and the socialist jargon, and what’s left is a hollow, authoritarian defense of power and militarism-so long as it’s non-Western.
For years, some Pakistani leftists, especially those in the online intelligentsia and ‘progressive’ elite, have portrayed themselves as anti-imperialist. However, when it comes to Balochistan, their silence is deafening. Even worse than silence, many of them actually repeat the state’s propaganda: that Baloch dissent is “foreign-funded,” that enforced disappearances are exaggerated, and that China’s exploitation of Baloch land and resources isn’t imperialism—because it’s not done by the West.
This is the same ideological rot that infected much of the Western left during the Syrian revolution. When Syrians rose up against a brutal dictatorship, much of the anti-war left turned their backs. They romanticized Assad as a “secular anti-imperialist” and cheered on Russian and Iranian intervention, just because it wasn’t American. The only ‘Syrians’ they recognized were the ones who confirmed their own geopolitical fantasies. The rest-pro-democracy protesters, revolutionaries, civilians- were silenced, smeared, or erased.
Some Pakistani leftists do the same to Baloch people.
They speak of class struggle but ignore the Baloch working class being crushed by military operations and displacement. They speak of resisting imperialism but turn a blind eye to Chinese capital, militarized economic zones, and resource plunder in Balochistan through the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a textbook case of anti-people colonial style extraction, enforced by violence and surveillance. But since China does it, it’s labeled “development.”
This is not anti-imperialism or anti-capitalism. This is the anti-imperialism of idiots- those who think the only extractive anti-people international capital worth resisting is the one headquartered in Washington. They are blind to the workings in Beijing, Tehran, Moscow, or even their own Rawalpindi. For them, colonial-style extraction from native populations and their subjugation to necropolitics is just a Western problem, not a global structure that operates through all states, especially those that colonize and suppress indigenous nations within their own borders.
Their selective morality is perhaps most obvious in how they instrumentalize the India–Pakistan conflict. Every time the state intensifies its campaign of terror in Balochistan, Sindh, or Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, this faction of the left joins in the distraction: “Look at Modi,” “Don’t criticize Pakistan when it’s under threat.” The India–Pakistan war exposed this hypocrisy even further-many of those who claim to be leftist Pakistanis openly cheered the Pakistan Army, and some even declared they were ready to join the very genocidal military they claim to oppose in principle. The spectacle was a perfect illustration of how quickly anti-militarist slogans dissolve when the jingoism card is played.
In this mess, even so-called progressive movements like Haqooq-e-Khalq Movement (HKM) reveal their true authoritarian face. For all their rhetoric of workers’ rights and socialism, they chant “Pakistan Zindabad” a slogan of the very military that bombs Baloch homes, disappears students, and assassinates dissenters. That slogan is not neutral. It is soaked in blood. It is the last thing many Baloch families heard before their loved ones were abducted or killed. Yet HKM and others chant it in marches and events under the illusion that this somehow does not contradict their “progressive” politics.
How is this different from American leftists waving the stars and stripes while claiming to be anti-imperialist? It’s not.
How is this different from the German ‘Anti-Deutsche’ left waving Israeli flags while branding all Palestinian resistance as antisemitic and terroristic? It’s not.
In all three cases, the logic is the same: defend one imperial project by pointing to another, and in the process, erase the actual oppressed.
Like their Western counterparts who said “Hands off Syria” but meant “Let Assad massacre,” some Pakistani leftists say “No to US imperialism” but mean “Let China and Pakistan do what they want in Balochistan.” Just like the Western ‘anti-war’ movement that erased Syrians, this faction constantly erases Baloch voices. They do panels, conferences, and solidarity statements without ever inviting Baloch activists. When Baloch people speak of genocide and enforced disappearances, they are told to “focus on class unity” or are accused of “dividing the movement.”
Solidarity for these people only exists for Palestinians or global icons that can be romanticized from a distance. Baloch people, being too close to home and too inconvenient for their liberation struggle framework, are treated as enemies or traitors.
Some even parrot the army’s propaganda about “foreign hands,” “Naraz Baloch” (angry Baloch), and “terrorist hideouts,” while ignoring that the biggest foreign hand in Balochistan is Chinese and the biggest terrorists wear uniforms.
This is not just ignorance. It’s racism. A racism that cannot imagine Baloch people as political subjects, as fighters for justice, as human beings with dreams and demands. Like the Syrian people, Baloch people are dehumanized into statistics or abstractions. Their suffering is either denied or justified in the name of a higher ideological cause.
And just like in Syria, the ideological convergence between fascists and leftists becomes hard to distinguish. Many of the same leftists who condemn Israeli apartheid will defend the Pakistani military’s occupation. Those who celebrate Black and Brown resistance globally will demonize Baloch resistance as “tribal” or “separatist.” The language changes, but the logic remains: the state must be preserved at all costs, and the oppressed must be quiet.
There are many valid reasons to oppose Western imperialism, just as there are many valid reasons to oppose US military involvement in the region. But real anti-imperialism is consistent. It does not choose which structures to excuse and which oppressed people to ignore. It does not sacrifice indigenous communities on the altar of geopolitics.
You cannot claim to stand with the oppressed while defending their oppressors.
You cannot speak of internationalism while erasing those who resist from within your own borders.
And you cannot call yourself anti-imperialist if your politics only punch up at the West while bowing down to Beijing and Rawalpindi—and singing “Zindabad Pakistan” while Baloch bodies are thrown into mass graves.
