Nawaz in Washington

What for?

Nawaz Sharif had already held several high level talks with top civil and military leadership before embarking on his Washington visit. He delayed his departure by a day to get briefing from the ISI chief who had returned after meeting his counterpart at Langley. Sharif thus goes prepared with the stand he is supposed to take on issues like peace in Afghanistan, the Haqqani network, worsening relations with India and Pakistan’s expanding nuclear arsenal.

Despite being the head of the elected government Sharif plays only a marginal role in decision making on some of the issues considered vital by the US. The COAS has himself held talks with the Afghan President and Abdullah Abdullah and held out assurances to promote intra-Afghan talks. The position remains unchanged even after the hard stand taken by Afghan leadership at New York during the UNGA. The establishment has made no secret of its unhappiness over Nawaz Sharif’s initiative to travel to meet Narendra Modi. The nuclear policy is devised by the National Command Authority (NCA) which last month categorically justified Full Spectrum Deterrence ‘because of India’s rapidly growing nuclear programme and absence of a conflict resolution mechanism’. The change of the National Security Adviser (NSA) on the eve of the visit indicates that the establishment wants to ensure that there is no meddling in matters related to security by the civilian authority.

The US position too has been made amply clear. It was earlier conveyed to the PM by US NSA Susan Rice followed by Secretary of State John Kerry. The implications of continuing with the existing policies too are likely to have been explained to Sharif by prominent members of the Obama administration and American lawmakers who met him on Thursday.

This leaves little space for the Prime Minister to manoeuver. As things stand Sharif can only convey the message from Washington at his return to those who matter. This explains why some had questioned the utility of his visit to the US.