Imtiaz Gul
“Imran is a tough Guy,” John Kerry – the then Secretary of State had remarked following his 40 minutes one to one meeting with Imran Khan back in early August 2013.
The meeting took place at the residence of the US Deputy Chief of Mission after Khan had refused to meet Kerry at the US Embassy. During the meeting, the PTI chief had demanded an end to drone attacks in erstwhile FATA, saying “we have reservations on continuous drone attacks.”
The same Kerry, a close confidante of President Joe Biden, instead of inviting Khan to the U.S.-hosted Virtual Leaders Summit on Climate (held on April 22-23), extended the invitation to his special assistant on climate change, Malik Amin Aslam.
We understand Imran Khan, an ardent advocate of clean and green climate, took offence to his exclusion from the summit which was attended by 40 heads of state/governments including those from India, Bangladesh and Bhutan – evident also from his tweet.
“I am puzzled at the cacophony over Pak not being invited to a climate change conf! My govt’s environment policies are driven solely by our commitment to our future generations of a clean & green Pakistan to mitigate the impact of climate change,” Khan tweeted on April 3.
The PM has since kept mum on issues such as Afghanistan and relations with the US.
One wonders if Biden is intentionally ignoring PM Khan, or has the latter decided not to engage with the US leadership for the time being? Big question if we recall that following a bitter twitter spat, former President Trump did return to beg Khan for support in the Afghan peace process through a December 2018 letter.
Trump spoke to Khan at least four times and also met him thrice until his exit from the White House. Biden hasn’t done either of them although Khan congratulated Biden and Kamala Harris on their victory on November 7.
“Look forward to President Elect Biden’s Global Summit on Democracy & working with him to end illegal tax havens & stealth of nation’s wealth by corrupt leaders. We will also continue to work with US for peace in Afghanistan & in the region,” Khan had promised.
But the White House seems frozen on Imran Khan. The only US-Pakistan contacts at the moment are between the respective military establishments. Even secretary of state Antony Blinken has also been speaking only with the GHQ, notwithstanding a recent meeting between the two national security advisors in Europe.
What does President Biden expect of Pakistan? Does he want PM Khan to initiate a phone call or beg for a photo-op only if the Taliban agree to peace with Kabul?
That doesn’t seem to be on the cards for two major reasons; Pakistan’s leverage over Afghan Taliban is not boundless.
Secondly, former ambassador Asif Durrani rightly pointed out the fallacy inherent in expectations of Pakistan.
“US agreed with the Taliban to withdraw from Afghanistan on (the) promise from the latter to deny sanctuary to ISIS/Al Qaeda. It didn’t enter into the (Doha) peace deal with Taliban or bound Taliban to make peace with Ashraf Ghani. Now US & AG expect Pakistan to hand over peace on a platter.”
The peace-on-platter by Pakistan – as peddled by several Afghan stakeholders and their Indian supporters – was never an option. Nor is it realistic any way given the tribal nature of Afghanistan.
And Hamdullah Mohib, raised and educated in Pakistan but now holding the coveted position of National Security Advisor, has single-handedly destroyed whatever little leverage (over Taliban) Pakistan had been left with.
In a public speech earlier this month in eastern Nangarhar province, Mohib not only once again dumped the blame of Afghanistan’s past and current problems on Pakistan but went on to compare it with a “brothel house.”
General Bajwa reportedly conveyed Pakistan’s displeasure and the decision not to engage with Mohib any more during his meeting with President Ghani in the presence of Nick Carter, Britain’s chief of the defense staff, on May 10.
This also enforced a literal break at least between the Ashraf Ghani camp comprising his deputy Amrullah Saleh and NSA Mohib and Pakistan, which has informally refused to engage with the aforementioned persons. Has Khan angered the war lobbies within the Biden administration for pushing his peace and environment agenda? In fact the UN acknowledged Khan’s contribution to the environment by asking him to host the UN climate change conference on June 04 to highlight the country’s effective policy in this regard.
