Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: Six months ago, Pakistan was praying for the Inauguration of Joe Biden as the 46th US President in January 2021 as his predecessor Donald Trump was seen as too close to India for Islamabad’s comfort. Prime Minister Imran Ahmed Khan Niazi hoped that a new President in Washington would help a bankrupt Pakistan tide over a series of crises the South Asian country has for long been facing.
But Biden has followed many of Trump’s policies. He, too, has consistently ignored Pakistan’s fervent attempts to ‘seduce’ the White House. Not only this, the US President has not personally spoken even once with Khan, nor invited him to join even a virtual summit of world leaders in April!
Since January 6, when Biden took the oath, many in Islamabad were waiting for a reset of soured bilateral relations. Even feelers were sent out to Washington. But nothing has happened. On the contrary, to Pakistan’s chagrin, Biden recently decided to aid the Covid-19 afflicted India in all possible manner.
Why, the US paid no heed to Pakistan’s alleged ‘overtures’ to India to harmonize relations–and Islamabad did not disappoint Washington as it continued to violate the international border in Jammu and Kashmir, despite its verbal assurances.
This has dismayed Pakistan. “There is no such rapprochement in sight as the Biden administration in Washington delivers perceived snubs rather than engaged olive branches to Islamabad,” a US official said, according to media reports on Friday.
The US ignored Pakistan’s hopeful outreach for rapprochement, despite the critical role Islamabad played in persuading the Taliban to negotiate with Washington in Afghanistan’s peace settlement. Despite that crucial initiative, which will take America off the hook in Kabul and potentially end “endless war”, Biden has not even interacted with Khan, Asia Times, quoting Pakistani officials, said.
America has reasons to ignore Pakistan which has drawn closer than ever to China and Russia. The US believes Islamabad is pushing China and Russia’s agendas at the expense of US interests in Afghanistan. “Washington also knows Pakistan is well-placed to manipulate the formation of a future Afghan government by dint of its proximity and connection to the Taliban.”
America is expressing its displeasure through “not-so-veiled diplomatic sleights”. For instance, Biden’s Special Envoy for Climate Change, John Kerry, visited India and Bangladesh in April but eschewed a stopover in Pakistan, reported Asia Times.
Similarly, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin visited India and Afghanistan in March but opted not to land in Pakistan.
An important reason for continued soured relations is the Supreme Court’s acquittal of Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh and three associates who allegedly kidnapped and decapitated Wall Street Journal bureau chief Daniel Pearl back in 2002.
The apex court released Sheikh just as Biden was taking the oath of his office in January. Washington is believed to have asked Islamabad to review its legal options after the ruling. Besides, it suggested that Islamabad could allow the US to prosecute the suspects to provide justice to Pearl’s family if Pakistan itself could not do so for political reasons.
Islamabad can do neither lest it invites the terrorist gangs’ wrath against the Imran government. Nor can it dilute its association with Beijing which has promised to invest USD 60 billion in the ambitious China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
Pakistan may be willing but its flesh is weak!
So, the US continues to rub salt in Pakistan’s wounds. Biden did not even invite Imran to his government’s first virtual summit on climate change held on April 22 and 23. This when the US had invited as many as 40 heads of state and government, including leaders of India, Bangladesh, and Bhutan from the South Asian region. As a consolation, Washington did send a belated invitation to a low-profile Pakistani functionary who serves as Khan’s special assistant on climate change!
Despite its ‘all-weather friend’ China on its side, Pakistan still needs Washington’s support, both to sustain disbursements of its USD 6 billion bailout package from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and to be removed from the global terror-financing and money-laundering watchdog Financial Action Task Force’s “grey list”, a designation that hinders Islamabad’s participation in global financial markets.
The FATF kept Islamabad on its grey list in February as well because “Pakistan must improve its investigations and prosecutions of all groups and entities financing terrorists and their associates and show that penalties imposed by courts are effective.”
The next FATF plenary review of Pakistan’s status is due in June 2021, and Islamabad dreads its ‘upgradations to the blacklist.