Daily Times

Former prime minister Imran Khan is looking to mend his ties with the United States. In a recent statement, the PTI chief expressed his willingness to enter a “dignified relationship” with the US; stepping back from his previous position on the American government.

Prior to this, Khan had claimed that Donald Yu, a high-ranking American official dealing with Pakistan in the US state department, was involved in a systematic conspiracy to destabilize his government. He went on to attribute the no-confidence motion that took him out of power to this conspiracy but appears to have reconsidered this narrative, leading many to question why he was so adamant about blaming the US, to begin with.

US-Pakistan relations were particularly turbulent during Imran Khan’s government-after former President Donald Trump cut security assistance to Pakistan in 2018 over concerns about the government sponsoring terrorists, the future of their relationship grew deeply uncertain. The situation improved temporarily when Pakistan helped broker talks between Washington and the Taliban in Qatar but by the end of the year, when Biden came into power, things were looking bleak again. So, when Khan blamed the American government for pushing Pakistan into its War on Terror, animosity between the two administrations reached new heights.

Considering the US is Pakistan’s largest export market, with approximately $607 million worth of goods exported to the country just last year, this was not a very smart policy decision. Without Washington’s support, Pakistan is at risk of becoming alienated from the international community. Pakistan is currently on its 22nd International Monetary fund program and needs Washington’s help if it has any chance of getting off the Financial Action Task Force’s grey list. On top of all this, the US has withdrawn its forces from Afghanistan, leading to a decline in Pakistan’s geopolitical importance. All this means that the scope of their relationship is quite narrow at the moment, even without the danger of any political fires. On Thursday, a US spokesman responded to Khan’s renewed position on the conspiracy narrative, reiterating that they “support Pakistan’s constitutional process and the rule of law.” It is now up to Shehbaz Sharif’s government to set the record straight and reset relations between the two countries lest we lose our most important ally on the other side of the world. Of course, no one needs a reminder that these ties need to be cemented using the foundation stones of sovereignty and mutual respect. Because no matter how dire our straits may be, Pakistan is still a functional democracy with a solid foothold on the geopolitical chessboard. *