Daily Times

For the last many decades diplomatic relations between the United States and Pakistan is a tale of love and hate but since President Trump took the oath there was nothing to offer except demands to act against terrorist networks who were having safe havens in Pakistan and killing Afghan and Americans. With these demands President Trump in a surprise move ended 1.3 billion US Dollars aid to Pakistan in 2018 alleging that Pakistan taking care of enemies while security assistance to Pakistan also suspended. There were a lot of other decisions by the Trump administration that showed mistrust on Pakistani Government, but back-to-back meetings of Prime Minister Imran Khan and President Donald Trump gave little hope that things would get better soon.

After a couple of meetings between heads of states, it was clear that passage of relations with Pakistan comes through Afghanistan so to gain the trust of Americans and as per American wishes, Pakistan worked hard to bring peace in Afghanistan and played an important role in signing of an agreement between Taliban and Trump administration. This is the time when Pakistan was looking forward to hearing some good news regarding the relations between two countries but change of power in the “White House” washed away all those hopes and expectations as incoming President-elect Joe Biden has some different plans for Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Defeat of President Trump in the Presidential Elections is also a big setback for Pakistani top diplomats in Washington D.C who were waiting to celebrate and getting themselves ready to claim the success of Afghan peace process by actually doing nothing.

During the past few years many top Pakistani diplomats preferred to get settled in the United States while dozens of children of different diplomats never went back home.

“Pakistan negotiators failed to get anything in return from the peace agreement in Afghanistan, ” observed former Senator EnverBaig who heads the Foreign Affairs and Diplomatic Affairs Committee of PPP in Ms Benazir Bhutto’s tenure. “Pakistan did a lot for peace in Afghanistan but in return got nothing, at least Pakistani negotiators could have got something on Kashmir or anything regarding border disputes with India but in the end, there was nothing”, Baig lamented in an exclusive chat.

Former Senator claimed that relations between Pakistan and the United States are at the lowest level despite great efforts in Afghanistan and not only Foreign Office but also the top diplomats are responsible for that. “I was going through a few newsletters of the Pakistan Embassy in Washington D.C where it was mentioned that Pakistan and the United States enjoy great relations, for God sake, what kind of great relations two countries enjoy, he asked. “Your civilian and military aid is suspended, there is no sale of arms to Pakistan, you are placed in CPC countries and watch list for religious freedom, security cooperation and training of Pakistani soldiers in America is suspended while there is no US Ambassador in Islamabad for the last four months”. Senator EnverBaig was also of the view that Pakistan also failed on the Kashmir issue. “I have not seen any single statement of the State Department on the situation of Kashmir, what kind of diplomacy is going on in Washington, ” he posed a question. “To be honest, I think our Ambassador and top diplomats in the United States are just having a good time in their offices and at night attending parties, there is nothing going on for the country, they are busy settling their children and relatives”.

“Before sending any diplomat to the most important station like Washington our diplomats and even military attaches should be trained regarding the social fabric of these stations, I can bet they can not even understand the slang language”. “Military Attaches should be upgraded from Brigadier level to Major General and General should be six feet tall, with fair complexion who can speak English fluently so he could make some good expressions when he enters the Pentagon for meetings’ ‘. “When you send someone to Washington D.C like me who is short, can’t understand slang and don’t have any good personality, they (Pentagon) would not take you seriously and trust me it’s true”.

He further said that the Ambassador for Washington D.C should be appointed on the basis of merit as every single career diplomat wanted his or her appointment in Washington before the end of his tenure that is the reason for failed diplomacy. He also suggested that Pakistan should send Washington D.C any political person like Sherry Rehman or Hussain Haqqani who can get social with the Congressmen, Senators, State Department and White House, not the one like who is shy to social and have no sense to host social gatherings.

EnverBaig comments were no surprise to this scribe as during the past few years many top Pakistani diplomats preferred to get settled in the United States while dozens of children of different diplomats never went back home.

As the new administration is sworn in on 20th December, this is the time to change the strategy and prepare Pakistani diplomats to launch campaigns in an aggressive manner. They need to get activated and gel in with the new setup as President-elect Joe Biden already expressed his desire to not pull back American forces from Afghanistan. Pakistan also recently hired a lobbying firm and media consultancy agency on extremely high budgets but that experience also miserably failed. Pakistani diplomats also look helpless to float their agenda in American “Think Tanks”. They have no participation and do not have the ability to reach out to them to make them understand the challenges being faced by Pakistan both at the national and international level. It is the right time to bring the kind of diplomats who have broader vision and have experience with the political culture to connect with the politicians in the United States as in the past, such kind of experience always prove successful.

Jahanzaib Ali is a journalist, author, based in Washington D.C. He has been working in the field for 15 years and now focusing on Foreign Policy.