Pakistan has seen a tough time in the past few weeks because of US President Donald Trump’s tweet in which he accused the country of not being faithful to the US despite receiving aid. The response that Pakistan gave was not a significant one and the public was expecting a bigger rebuttal. This is because contrary to the public sentiments, the state has to have measured response to such issues while keeping in mind the bilateral and multilateral cooperation and dependence between governments of the two countries.
Different stakeholders responded differently to the US president’s accusations. Moreover, the anti-American rhetoric which has largely been a part of political campaigns in Pakistan now seems to have ended. Even anti-India sentiments have not been a part of political campaigns in Pakistani for quite some time. This despite the fact that the ruling party in India, BJP, still uses Pakistan factor in their campaigns to grab more votes. Pakistan protested this in last elections in Indian Gujarat.
In Pakistan, either the political elite has matured over the years or they feel there are more pressing issues in Pakistan and that bashing external actors is of no use.
Coming back to Pakistan’s response to Trump’s tweet, one would analyse that there has been a difference in how institutions reacted to the anti-Pakistan statement.
Parliamentary committee on National Security gave a measured response and demanded the security establishment to brief them as to how to move forward from here but agreed there must not be any response in haste. Cabinet Committee on National Security also met but nothing concrete came out of the meeting, other than a statement that Pakistan should take the matter more seriously and must not respond unwisely. Foreign office was more diplomatic and calculated whereas the foreign minister was harsh and made it clear that there does not exist any alliance with the US now because the way they are treating us is not how allies are treated. The defence minister even gave certain policy decisions that level of security cooperation has lowered with the US but remained cautious.
The response that came from the Punjab chief minister was more diplomatic than even the foreign office. He said aid which brings disrespect must not be taken but did not respond to Trump directly
The response that came from the Punjab chief minister was more diplomatic than even foreign office. He said aid which brings disrespect must not be taken but did not respond to Trump directly. He understands he is next candidate for Prime Minster so he spoke with voice of caution but nothing from ruling party has been said which could annoy the mighty Americans.
Although anti Americanism is very common in Pakistan, the ruling party seems to believe they have to be careful as Americans are known for micro-management in Pakistani politics. So the fear of uncle Sam is still there that is why former PM Nawaz Sharif did a veiled criticism on Trump. Maryam Nawaz who is almost on driving seat of party politics and in media all the time did not utter a single word on Trump’s tweet.
Pakistan People’s Party which is liberal and progressive and has always allured West, especially the US political leadership and tried to maintain contacts in executive and legislative branches, gave muted response to Trump’s tweet. Former President Asif Zardari did not speak on Trump’s statements about Pakistan and remained almost silent. He claims to have contacts in legislative branch in the US and with political leadership to give message to stakeholders of setup in Pakistan that he can build opinion in US whenever he wants. Bilawal Bhutto came up with loud and cautioned voice about Trump statement on Pakistan. He started claiming it is the PPP which knows how to deal with the US but PPP is not a party which has strong anti American credentials. Most of actions which Bilawal claims to have taken in PPP tenure from 2008 to 2013 were because of security establishment’s hard stance on the US especially after Salala incident and not because PPP wanted it.
Surprisingly, Maulana Fazulur Rehman who has always given anti-US remarks in his rallies and to his supporters has not come up with any response to US President. What is in his mind is not known but one can speculate that this is election year and JUI-F might be making measured attempts to appease the US. JUI-F always takes measured stance and lowered threshold to have members from other sects and religions in its party. But it is meaningful that the party did not lament US administration while knowing his chief rival in KP Imran khan made several remarks against the US President’s stance on Pakistan. KP consists of conservative and traditional society so anti imperial sentiments are easily sellable there, but why the JUI-F missed this opportunity is unclear.
The only party that strongly reacted to the US president’s remarks about Pakistan is PTI. Social media wing of the party played Imran’s anti-American and anti imperial interviews to international broadcasters. Imran Khan got huge popularity in KP while being only political leader who protested and held demonstrations in the province against the US drone strikes which made him exceptional and the province then voted his party into power in 2013 elections. Many believe Imran Khan is emerging as strong leader who is opposing the US and other great powers. In other words, he has taken the space of right wing conservative parties who were famous for anti Americanism and is fast emerging as centre left leader. But at the same time, he is not doing politics on sensitive religious issues like Khatm-e-Nabuwat.
Jamat-e-Islami is another right wing opposition party which has strong anti-American credentials but failed to grab any public support and could not criticise the US at a time when the nation was angry over the US president’s remarks.
The writer is Strategic and Political analyst. He teaches international politics in NUML Islamabad
Published in Daily Times, January 16th 2018.