That prime minister-in-waiting Imran Khan has a different approach to foreign policy challenges, especially the difficult relationship with the US, has never been in doubt. He has been a tireless critic of US drone strikes in Pakistan’s tribal areas and an advocate of a negotiated settlement of the Afghan war. Soon after his election victory, international media, especially India’s, used that to portray him as anti-American, though he had been explaining on several occasions in the past that he was not against the US but some of its policies. What he disfavours, as he emphasized in his victory speech, is the transactional nature of Pak-US relations, saying he wants a “mutually beneficial” relationship, adding that “the US thinks it gives us aid to fight their war … We want a balanced relationship.”
When Acting US Ambassador John F. Hoover called on him on Wednesday, Khan talked of the need for revitalizing diplomatic, trade and economic ties between the two countries. He also reiterated his stance on the key issue of quarrel, Afghanistan. His party, he said, wants to build a relationship with the US based on “trust” and “mutual respect” - the two missing elements that should not be mutually exclusive. The US has been accusing Pakistan of providing safe havens to an Afghan Taliban group, the powerful Haqqani network, and this side complaining about TTP terrorists using Afghan soil to launch cross-border attacks. It is worth noting that a year ago, no less a person than a top US general, CentCom commander Gen Joseph Votel, had told a congressional panel that Pakistan had “done things” against the Haqqani network that have been helpful to the war against terrorism. Yet the blame game never stopped. Pakistan is not so wrong when it says it is being made a scapegoat for US’s own failure to win the war in Afghanistan.
President Donald Trump did not help the matters when in August 2017, he announced his policy toward Afghanistan and South Asia, assigning a special role to India — Pakistan’s arch-rival – in Afghanistan, and later posted humiliating comments about this country on his Twitter account. However, lately there have been significant signs of a positive change. Last January, a senior Trump aide, Lisa Curtis, publicly stated that US had asked for Pakistan’s assistance in facilitating a peace process, and also sought “to understand Pakistan’s own core security concerns and ensure that its interests are taken into account in any peace process.” That surely is a vital basis for building trust. Pakistan is believed to have played the asked facilitation role. American officials have been in direct talks in Doha with the Taliban. The negotiations process is expected to have many ups and downs. But there are enough reasons inspiring hope that it will lead to a workable solution. No country has a bigger stake in a peaceful and stable Afghanistan than Pakistan.
