- Amidst a call to do more
After meeting President Trump, PM Imran Khan was engaged in a number of interactions. He was interviewed by Fox TV, he addressed the United States Institute of Peace (USIP), met Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and spoke before the bipartisan Pakistani American caucus. He was well prepared over the issues that came under discussion. He talked about Pakistan’s nuclear policy and nuclear security, relations with India, the Kashmir issue, the need to involve the Afghan Taliban in bringing peace to the country and the political situation in Pakistan.
Mr Khan maintained that Pakistan was entering into a new phase of relationship with the USA. Instead of being transactional as before, the relations would henceforth be defined by friendship based on joint pursuit of common interests, the immediate task being to bring peace in Afghanistan. Unlike the past, he maintained, Islamabad did not seek US aid but wanted to enhance trade with the USA and promised US investors a safe and conducive environment in Pakistan.
The PM was enthused after meeting President Trump. He said relations between the USA and Pakistan had been reset and the two countries were allies now. Whether the US administration also shares the view will become clear when the issue of determining Pakistan’s status comes up at the FATF. Interestingly soon after Mr Khan arrived in Washington he was reminded that while actions taken by Pakistan against the terrorist networks were welcome, these would not be taken on their face value. Pakistan had to take irreversible action against terrorist and militant groups.
Domestic issues cropped up during the interaction at the USIP. Here Imran Khan maintained that PPP and PML-N leaders indulged in corruption and hoarded the looted money abroad. They also acted like the Italian mafia. Responding to a question regarding media freedom, he claimed that there was more media freedom in Pakistan than in Britain. The media in Pakistan was in fact out of control and was irresponsible while the media owners were more interested in the pursuit of their peculiar agendas than anything else. Whenever restrained by the media watchdog, they complained about government censorship. Many will wonder what led working journalists to launch countrywide protests against media curbs.