Edit: For clarity, did Pakistan and China make the right move doing this.
Yes. I felt differant yesterday but that was a uninformed position. Since then I have read a bit on the background and it seems a very sensible decision. To be begin with Masood was already under restrictions within Pakistan. Apparently it was decided to let Masood go but the trick was to 'delete' any referances to Kashmir and terrorism. This was done. The bill was passed after it was amended to remove the referances on terrorism and 'Kashmir' or Pulwama were deleted. Thus India got a watered down bill. Thus from my POV this was a success. The bill was passed but with 'teath' pulled out as far as India is concerned. Note the points below in red -
• China gets listing proposal revised
• FO says previous bids to list Azhar were aimed at maligning Pakistan and legitimate struggle of Kashmiris
A statement issued by the UN from New York headquarters said: “Mohammad Masood Azhar Alvi was listed on 1 May 2019 pursuant to paragraphs 2 and 4 of resolution 2368 (2017) as being associated with
Al-Qaida for
terrorist activities”.
The declaration came following a major diplomatic
compromise between China and the initiators of the listing proposal under which the movers
dropped all
references to
Kashmiri uprising in the India-held valley,
Pulwama incident and
Pakistani institutions, especially those
linking Kashmiri freedom struggle to
terrorism.
https://www.dawn.com/news/1479738/unsc-lists-jem-chief-as-global-terrorist
This was a masterstroke by China. What they did was dumped Masood in the Al-Qaida bin. As I have said before everytbody has their own angle on terrorism. The west are mostly
only concerned by Islamists [mostly Arabists] that are
threat to west and Israel, fueled often as they are by Palestine/Middle East issues which since 9/11 is branded as 'Islamic terror' by western media. The Chinese are
only concerned by Uighurs.
India has been desperately trying to lump the Kashmir struggle with Palestine, Al-Qaida and other Arabists causes so as to paint them as "Islamic terror" and thereby get western/Israeli support and validation. In doing so Pakistan would be made to look as another evil state like Iran and Kashmir cause bracketed as part of the wider Islamic terror stretching from Palestine, Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and the various Islamic terrorist group in Europe or even the recent Sri Lankan attack. That is make Kashmir struggle part of wider Islamic jihad. In fact Indian was peddling the same aggenda as our own PDF ummah types who look at a global Islamic ummah and see Rohingya, Uighurs, Palestinians, Kashmiri's etc as just one Muslim ummah being oppressed.
However China and Pakistan have followed the more politics of secular geo-politics by dumping Masood on Al-Qaida and separating Kashmir cause from rest of the jihadi groups. What China/Pakistan are saying is all the groups that threaten west, Europe, Israel, China are terrorists but the ones fighting in Kashmir are legitimate freedom fghters. To my mind this was nothing short then a tactical genius move.
By de-hyphenating Masood from Kashmir and lumping him with Al-Qaida it took the wind out of the Indian sail and satisfied the western countries. It divided the threat faced by India from threat faced by west. Islamic groups that threaten israel, West will go onto be sanctioned but Kashmiri freedom struggle will continue on a separate track.