Finally, Pakistan will have a full-time US envoy after three years. Ambassador-designate Donald Blome comes at a time when Pak-US relations are by no means cordial. Many in the Biden Administration blame Pakistan for Washington’s inglorious exit from Afghanistan. The US Administration is unhappy over China’s rising influence in the region and has consistently opposed the CPEC. What has further added to Washington’s ire are Prime Minister Imran Khan’s less than diplomatic statements. Being still a superpower, the USA is unwilling to further lose influence in the region, including in Pakistan, which is an important country in South Asia.
Pakistanis have an ambivalent relationship with the USA. A minority admires it for being an open society, practising democracy and having a free media and independent judiciary. Many accuse the USA of pushing Pakistan into bloody fights only to leave it high and dry to face the horrendous consequences. They believe that this amounts to sheer betrayal. There is a perception that the USA invariably sacrifices its much trumpeted ideals when dictated by strategic needs. Most in the country believe China is a dependable ally which has stood by Pakistan through thick and thin. Pakistan government wants to have good relations with both the USA and China without being the part of any bloc system that characterized the Cold War, which is a sensible stand.
Ambassador-designate Blome has pledged to work for lowering tensions between Pakistan and India. This a more realistic goal than President Trump’s promise to mediate the Kashmir dispute. But India being Washington’s a strategic ally, it remains to be seen if the latter could pressurize it to end the inhuman reign of terror in the occupied Valley which is the principal reason behind the rise in tensions. It is a good idea to fight the Al-Qaeda, the IS-K and TTP together provided Pakistan makes sure it has read the fine print before signing.
Few in Pakistan would buy the US promise  to defend human rights especially the rights of religious minorities, keeping in view Washington’s total silence on the issues during the Zia era when Martial Law was imposed, journalists were flogged, and laws made to persecute the minorities.
