Talking to a group of foreign journalists, Prime Minister Imran Khan has said that the USA apparently only wants it to help it resolve its problem in withdrawing from Afghanistan. It seems he has not considered either the nature of the Pak-US relationship or the ways in which pressure can be placed on Pakistan. The relationship has always been transactional. The first four decades were consumed in the Cold War, culminating in Pakistan’s support, along with the USA of the Mujahideen in their resistance to the USSR. Pakistani help to the USA in its invasion of Afghanistan was also there. Mr Khan also overestimated the impact he had had on US President Trump, and failed to prevent the tilt towards India he now decries.
Mr Khan should remember that the USA has considerable leverage over Pakistan because of its economic vulnerability. It depends on US goodwill both at the IMF and in FATF. Not only does the USA extract a political cost, but the IMF is a Washington-consensus institution, which only offers aid programme like its Extended Fund Facility to countries the USA approves of. It may be that the USA has developed ties with the USA, but that is because of its commonalties with it, which throw into sharper relief its differences with Pakistan.
Mr Khan should not hope for improved relations with the USA so long as his government continues to persecute its opposition and crack down on the press, while remaining such a firm friend with China. If Mr Khan wishes to maintain a normal relationship with the USA, not only must it ensure more protection of fundamental rights and end the interference of extraneous institutions in governance, but it must improve its economy to the points where economic pressure can no longer be applied on it. It is pointless to blame the USA for problems in the relationship which have been made by Pakistan, or which have flowed from its past actions. An honest recognition that the USA has merely followed its national interests, just as much as Pakistan has, would be more useful than aunty protestations over behaviour, which again is the result of following its national interest.
